ASM4242

General Description

The ASM4242 is ASMedia’s first generation of Universal Serial Bus 4 (USB4®) host controller. It features upstream ports with 4-lane PCI Express 4.0 (PCIe Gen 4) and dual 4-lane DisplayPort sink ports, and downstream facing ports with dual USB4 ports. This controller also supports multiple protocol tunneling and USB 3.2 and DisplayPort alternate mode, providing high bandwidth up to USB4 Gen 3x2 40Gbps, USB 3.2 SuperSpeedPlus Gen 2x2 20Gbps and DisplayPort HBR3 x4 up to 32.4Gbps. This controller is in compliance with USB4 Specification Rev 1.0, VESA DisplayPort Standard V1.4a, VESA DisplayPort Alt Mode on USB Type-C Standard V2.0, and PCI Express Base Specification Rev 4.0 V1.0.

Integrating ASMedia’s self-designed physical layers (PHYs), this controller is implemented with USB4 router including the time measurement unit (TMU) and several PCIe downstream/DisplayPort IN/USB downstream adapters, PCI Express switch, DisplayPort retimer and Intel® eXtensible Host Controller Interface. The xHCI host controller allows interfacing with USB 2.0 and USB 3.2. The 4-lane PCIe Gen 4 offers premium speed up to 16Gbps bandwidth per lane, and two DisplayPort ports up to 4 lanes with 8.1Gbps per lane. The two USB4 PHYs which support USB4 Gen 3/Gen 2, Thunderbolt 3 Gen 3/Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 2/Gen 1 and DisplayPort provide up to HBR3 level transmission rate. It also features PCI Express/USB/DP/Host Interface tunneling and is backward compatible with DisplayPort Alt mode and legacy USB 3.2/USB 2.0 devices, as well as in compliance with Thunderbolt 3.

The ASM4242 uses flip chip technology in small form factor Green BGA package with advanced ultra-low power processing techniques. This complies with standard PCI Express/USB bus power management and advanced power management to reduce total power consumption efficiently under idle/standby state. This controller supports inbox driver of Microsoft® Windows 11 and various Linux™ kernels. Applications supported include motherboard, desktop PC, notebooks, workstations, servers and PCI Express based embedded systems.

Features

General Feature

  • Bridge a PCI Express USP and two DisplayPort sink ports to two USB4 DFPs.
  • Integrated USB4 router with an eXtensible Host Controller, a PCI Express switch and DisplayPort LTTPR/Non-LTTPR retimer internally.
  • Compliant with eXtensible Host Controller Interface specification revision 1.2.
  • Support GPIO, SPI and UART interface.
  • Support I2C master bus for external power delivery controller.
  • Upload firmware through external SPI ROM.
  • External 25MHz crystal oscillator.
  • Integrated spread spectrum controller.
  • 3.3V/1.8V/1.1V normal power and 3.3V/1.1V standby power required.
  • Support inbox driver of Microsoft® Windows 11 & various Linux™ kernels.
  • Industry specification compliance.
    • USB4 Specification Version 1.0
    USB 3.2 Specification Revision 1.0
    USB Type-C Cable and Connector Specification Release 2.0
    VESA DisplayPort Alt Mode on USB Type-C Standard Version 2.0
    VESA DisplayPort (DP) Standard Version 1.4a
    PCI Express Base Revision 4.0 Version 1.0 Specification
    PCI Express Card Electromechanical 2.0 Specification
    PCI Express Mini Card Electromechanical 1.2 Specification
    PCI Bus Power Management Interface Specification Revision 1.2
    PCI Local Bus Specification Revision 3.0

PCI Express Upstream Port Features

  • Support four lanes of PCIe Gen 4 upstream port.
  • Maximum bandwidth up to 16Gbps per lane.
  • Support PCI Express link power management.
  • 100MHz differential reference clock input.
  • Support SRIS mode.
  • Support MSI/MSI-X.

DisplayPort Sink Port Features

  • Support two DP sink ports.
  • Support four lanes of DP interface per port.
  • Compliance DP V1.4a.
  • Support up to HBR3 level.
  • Support maximum bandwidth up to 8.1Gbps per lane.
  • Support DP hot plug.

USB Downstream Facing Port Features

  • Support two USB4 DFPs.
  • Support multiple protocol tunneling including USB, DP, PCIe and host Interface.
  • Support USB4/USB 3.2 link power management.
  • Support USB4 Thunderbolt 3 compatibility.
  • Support DP alternate mode.
  • Support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 mode.
  • Support USB 3.2 multiple INs function.
  • Support USB 3.2 BOT and UAS protocol.
  • Support USB 3.2 control, bulk, stream, interrupt, isochronous transfer type.
  • Backward compatible with legacy USB function and device.
  • Support remote/wakeup event.
  • Support hot plug.

Package Type

11x11 mm² flip chip BGA with 23x23 ball array.

Green Package (Pb-free) with RoHS compliance.

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