Raspberry Pi launches its own USB hub – International

To counter the mass of bad products, Raspberry Pi released its own USB hub. Because the company was frustrated with many of the products available online, Raspberry Pi designed its own four-way USB 3.0 hub.

Most Raspberry Pi single-board computers, except the Raspberry Pi Zero and A+ form factors, include an integrated USB hub to deploy a single USB connection from the main silicon and provide multiple downstream USB Type-A ports. Since users often need more peripherals than there are ports, Raspberry Pi has released its own official “USB 3 Hub.” This is a four-way USB 3.0 hub for use with a Raspberry Pi or other computers.

Key features include:

Single upstream USB 3.0 Type-A connector on 8cm captive cable

Four downstream USB 3.0 Type-A ports

Overall data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps

USB-C jack for optional 3A external power supply (sold separately)

The reason Raspberry Pi designed its own hub, according to the company, is that it became frustrated with the quality and price of hubs available online. Either they have a high price for a beautiful design and a reliable product, or they are cheap and less compatible or unreliable.

So, Raspberry Pi worked with its partners at Infineon to use the CYUSB3304 silicon hub. Then they developed electronics and industrial design, and applied their manufacturing and distribution capabilities to achieve a lower price. The resulting product works with all Raspberry Pi computer models and costs US$12.

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