Having visited all the major Taiwanese USB chip vendors during Computex, it's clear that the three have very different focus when it comes to their businesses, with ASMedia going for host and device controllers with PCIe Express support, Realtek focusing on USB hubs and connectivity. This leaves VLI or VIA Labs who are putting its main efforts into video over USB-C. The company was showing a new USB-C to HDMI 2.1 converter chip, with the added benefit of being a single chip solution that also allows for USB PD passthrough, ideal for devices with a single USB-C port.

VLI is also hoping that USB4 will take off as a lower cost alternative to Thunderbolt based docking solutions, especially as not everyone needs Thunderbolt connectivity on their docks. As such, for those looking at a docking station that's still capable of multi-display support at resolutions over 4K60p or for those that are looking at combining multiple 4K displays while maintaining data speeds of at least 10 Gbps for storage devices, then USB4 appears to be the more affordable option to Thunderbolt. Later this year, the company will start shipping its VL832 USB4 end point device, which is an updated version of the VL830, although we weren't told what features have changed, as VLI wasn't ready to unveil the product at Computex.