Monday, March 11th 2013
Lynx Point USB 3.0 Controller Issue Correction Needs New Hardware
The issue with USB 3.0 controllers integrated into Intel's upcoming "Lynx Point" 8-series core logic can be addressed only with new hardware (modifying the silicon), according to a new Hardware.info report. Intel decided against delaying launch of the 4th generation Core "Haswell" family to address the issue, and instead opted to address it in a future revision of the chipset.
A design flaw causes devices connected to Lynx Point's integrated USB 3.0 controller to be disconnected when the system wakes up from S3 (suspend-to-RAM), forcing users to reconnect them. This could mean you'd have to mount your USB 3.0 hard-drives/flash-drives again, although no data is lost. If you're editing files stores on such a storage device, you might have to save your work before the system is put to S3 sleep.
In 2011, Intel launched its 6-series "Cougar Point" core logic that drove its first LGA1155 processors based on the "Sandy Bridge" architecture; with a faulty SATA 3 Gb/s controller, that warranted a general recall and replacement with 6-series Rev 3.0 chipset. This particular issue is classified by Intel as more of an irritant than a major flaw. It remains to be seen how it affects early adoption of the platform.
Source:
Hardware.info
A design flaw causes devices connected to Lynx Point's integrated USB 3.0 controller to be disconnected when the system wakes up from S3 (suspend-to-RAM), forcing users to reconnect them. This could mean you'd have to mount your USB 3.0 hard-drives/flash-drives again, although no data is lost. If you're editing files stores on such a storage device, you might have to save your work before the system is put to S3 sleep.
In 2011, Intel launched its 6-series "Cougar Point" core logic that drove its first LGA1155 processors based on the "Sandy Bridge" architecture; with a faulty SATA 3 Gb/s controller, that warranted a general recall and replacement with 6-series Rev 3.0 chipset. This particular issue is classified by Intel as more of an irritant than a major flaw. It remains to be seen how it affects early adoption of the platform.
54 Comments on Lynx Point USB 3.0 Controller Issue Correction Needs New Hardware
Here, Intel is promising to provide USB 3.0 support... so I expect full USB 3.0 support, not errors when I do something particular.
You will find errata in every AMD chipset
You will find errata in every AMD CPU
You will find errata in every Intel chipset
You will find errata in every Intel CPU....and every other processor you can think of Not necessarily (as I outlined earlier), and USB2.0 is arguably a bigger deal since the vast majority of USB devices in use are 2.0/1.1 specification.
its obvious intel dont wanna delay haswell that way they can have a couple quarters with minimal competition as richland wont be a game changer performance wise, but maybe in graphics will keep things in check, steamroller and kaveri on the other hand is the big unknown, could be another bulldozer, or another k8. kaveri being the first true apu with hsa features and the begining of the new amd after all the restructuring and what not, it sure will be an interesting year, and intel please keep bringing more screw ups like this, maybe that will keep you from getting too cocky, and will help amd land a punch on ur face to knock down these prices a bit. shiz its been 2 years since i brought my i5 2500k and price/performance remained steady ever since. heck piledriver was probably the only improvement in price/performance but that was only in multithread/multitasking
I specifically mentioned non ultrabook platforms, and the rightmost image is what ultrabooks will use.
A good example is my motherboard, the P9X79 Deluxe. The PCH PCI-E lanes are used to drive other components on the board such as USB 3.0, eSATA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the second Realtek lan port and the extra SATA 6Gb controller that are not integrated into the PCH.
The point is, that is not strictly a renamed ICH. It's more of a bastard child between the MCH and the ICH, which it just happened to inherit more traits from the ICH because that was the step Intel decided to take but to say it's strictly what the ICH used to be isn't true.
This is the reason why crossfire wasn't very useful on P965 or P35, where Intel only allowed a secon mechanical x16 slot, being electricaly x4 and linked to the ICH. So it was limited to only 1GB/s bandwith plus it had to take a detour via the ICH to MCH via DMI, then to the first GPU. Not that it would have been impossible to split the 16 Lanes from the MCH to 2x8, it only needs some switch ICs and no extra logic in the MCH to do that, but Intel did only allow that on 975X.
Now with Ibex Peak (P55/H57 etc.), this was increased to 8 Lanes (12 with DMI included), while X58 still used ICH10 like P45 etc. With cougar Point, the Lanes were updated to support PCIe2.0 (500MB/s instead of 250MB/s), so DMI went up to DMI 2.0 with 2GB/s instead of 1GB/s, too.
Now X58 and X79 are a bit special, because both have spare lanes in the IOH (X58, 40 Lanes 2.0 total, 4 for DMI, 32 for graphics, leaving 4 for periphals) or the CPU (S2011, 44 Lanes 3.0 total, 4 for DMI, 32 for Graphics, leaving 8 for periphals). This is were your board comes in. Don't know exactly what, but part of the expansion slots and chips should be connected directly to the CPU insted of the PCH (expansion slots and SATA 6Gb/s would benefit the most).
Since 8 Lanes for Periphals and expansion Slots in S1156/1155 is a bit low these days, most manufacturers use an 8 Lane PCIe-Switch from PLX, connected to one or more Lanes from the PCH and switching between several expansion slots and chips. This will be a bottleneck if the chips connected use more bandwith simultaneously than the connection to the PCH.
The point is, apart from the FDI routing the display signals from the IGP in the CPU out, the PCH is exactly a renamed ICH, albeit with more or faster generations of everything. You would only have to google a block diagram for any S775 chipset and compare it with a S1155 chipset to confirm what I'm talking about.
Motherboard: MSI 975X Platinum Power Up
Chipset: 975X Express
Southbridge: ICH7DH
The 975X has 16 lanes and the ICH has... PCI? Maybe I'm missing something here or maybe you're wrong? By the way ICH7DH on this board is the 820801GDH.
also now we know usb 3 has problems, but is it because of the usb controller or is it the cpu sleep states that needs to be fixed? because ivy had usb3.0 and it didnt have that problem
2. i have 18TB of external storage. no way in hell would i unplug each drive and replug after S3 sleep.
3. S1 is standby (monitor and hard drives off. everything else on). . S3 is sleep mode. S4 is hibernate. (most BIOS only let you choose S1 or S3)
4. doubt it. how would you 'safely reconnect' it?
the worst part is that this might get mentioned in a motherboard manual at best. this bug will not be listed on mobo boxes, nor will users buying prebuilts be notified of "oh yeah, the USB 3.0 ports are glitchy"