Category Archives: News

Plugable’s new Gigabit USB 3.0 Network adapter

Focusing on performance, power efficiency, and cross-platform support, Plugable is pleased to announce the availability of our USB3-E1000 Gigabit Ethernet adapter!

A must have for any frequent traveler with a Apple MacBook or a Windows based UltraBook lacking a built-in ethernet port, the USB3-E1000 is designed to fit easily in a travel case with no removable cable to lose. Having a wired network adapter can be a life-saver in conference rooms and hotels with marginal wifi coverage. Being able to use a wired connection instead of a weak wireless connection in these scenarios can drastically improve speeds. The USB3-E1000 is also a great way to add a 2nd network connection to your Windows PC for sharing an internet connection to another device.

Performance

We tested the USB3-E1000 using the open source network testing tool iperf running on a Mac Mini 6,1 connected directly to a MacBook Air 5,1. If you’d like to duplicate our tests, and avoid the command line, there’s a nice pre-compiled GUI version available here: JPerf-2.0.2.dmg. In order to isolate the adapters as completely as possible, we connected directly between two ethernet ports, set the IP addresses manually, and ran iperf as both server and client in each direction.

To maximize speeds, your entire network (including any routers or switches, and all cabling in-between) needs to be gigabit capable.

The results:


Adapters used for this test	Client/Server speed
USB3-E1000 on Mac Air to USB3-E1000 on Mac Mini	885/874
USB3-E1000 on Mac Air to onboard Gigabit Ethernet on Mac Mini	873/798

These are low-level performance numbers (raw TCP/IP throughput). Real world throughput like copying a file over the network will be substantially lower due to transport overhead and any bottlenecks on the network or on either side of the transfer.

Using a tool like iperf and isolating the ethernet adapters to a direct connection establishes a base line for data speeds. To further identify potential networking bottlenecks, introduce one network component at a time and rerun your tests to determine the delays and effect each layer of complexity has on your network.

Power Efficiency

Mobile users and power conscious consumers can rest assured they’re using minimal power thanks to the ASIX 88179′s energy saving feature set: auto cable length detection helps adjust power to accommodate for longer or shorter cable runs, IEEE 802.3az (Energy Efficient Ethernet) with lpi (low-power-idle) temporarily turns off the chip to conserve power, and IPv4/IPv6 packet Checksum Offload Engine (COE) support helps to reduce CPU load on the PC.

Cross-Platform Support

With backwards compatibility for older USB 2.0 and even USB 1.1 systems, this ASIX 88179 based adapter offers blistering performance on the latest USB 3.0 capable systems balanced with good cross platform support and backwards compatibility for older systems.

While Linux driver source code is available for Linux kernel versions 2.6 and later, compilation is required for all kernel versions before 3.3. This is a moderately complex operation not suitable for novice users.

This new USB 3.0 adapter will only work with Windows, Mac, and Linux for now. For other platforms like Android, Google’s Chrome OS, and for other devices like Tivo, Wii, etc., take a look at our Plugable USB 2.0 10/100 Adapter (ASIX AX88772 chipset), which supports many of these non-PC platforms with existing drivers already built-in to those platforms.

Plugable USB3-E1000 USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter (ASIX AX88179 Chipset)

Product Details

$28.95

DisplayLink Releases New Windows Driver Version 7.1 M1

Today DisplayLink released their new Windows Driver Version 7.1 M1 (7.1.45135.0). We’re excited to have this new driver out, as it fixes a number of last issues that let us recommend the latest 7.X drivers over the earlier 5.X and 6.X series drivers, on all versions of Windows. All of Plugable’s current and past USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices with a USB graphics function will work with this new driver.

Download the latest version of DisplayLink driver here.

This release has fixes for these issues which have affected a significant number of our users:

DisplayLink driver versions starting with 7.0 could cause Flash to hang up and crash when running Chrome browser. Those problems are reported fixed in 7.1 M1
nVidia GPUs with drivers dated Oct, 2012 or later would experience flashing screens and crashes. These problems are reported fixed in 7.1 M1 for some users, but not yet all
Windows 8 Metro applications running on USB displays could come up with Window unpainted (Blue or black). Reported fixed in 7.1 M1

A number of significant issues on Windows remain:

Windows 8 Metro apps playing protected video content will not play while the DisplayLink driver is installed (will show message in Window to upgrade graphics drivers). This is a difficult issue to solve because Microsoft has tightened DRM policies in Windows 8, and expect it may remain for some time.
Some driver conflicts apparently remain between nVidia drivers from October 2012 and later, and DisplayLink. The new 7.1 M1 driver solves some of these issues, but not all. We’ve also seen examples where the very latest nVidia pre-release drivers resolve this issue. We’ll keep tracking this, and appreciate your problem reports and feedback.

In detail, DisplayLink lists these issues fixed in 7.1M1

Microphone is shown as ‘Not plugged in’ after replugging DisplayLink device. (14345, 14431, 14463)
In some cases uninstallation of DisplayLink Core Software doesn’t uninstall everything properly. (14617)
UDP streaming using DisplayLink ethernet device is unreliable. (14678)
Sometimes VGA monitor attached to already connected DisplayLink device is not recognized correctly. (14699)
Sometimes screens remain blank after DisplayLink monitors are resumed from suspend mode. (14703, 14743, 13669)
Some video players showing content only on half of the screen. (14790)
On some systems with nVidia GPU Desktop Window Manager is crashing causing Windows to drop to Basic Mode. (14942)
Some Metro apps on Windows8 show a blank blue screen. (14955)
Sometimes Chrome web browser is responding very slowly and Flash plug-in crashes. (15014)
Sometimes DisplayLink monitor shows white noise instead of content when changing mode to clone while playing video. (15030)

We welcome any experiences or questions below. If you have a Plugable product and have any problems at all, just email your Amazon order # to support@plugable.com and we’ll be happy to help. Thanks!

Plugable USB 3.0 Hub Firmware Upgrades

4.26.13 Updated with new versions

Note this post is only about hubs. Users with any other product. For our own UD-3000 dock, please don’t follow this post — we have a separate post on the customized UD-3000 firmware upgrade.

USB 3.0 is rapidly evolving with new hardware and software that create new compatibility considerations, and Plugable is committed to staying on the cutting edge.

Skip background and jump to firmware update steps

This update utility is Windows-only and requires a USB 3.0 capable PC. If your PC has USB 2.0 rather than USB 3.0 ports, or if you use a Mac, you will not be able to complete this upgrade, and should instead contact support@plugable.com. For Mac customers wishing to update, a Windows installation in BootCamp can complete this update, however virtual machines like Parallels, VMWare, or VirtualBox are NOT able to complete this update.

Plugable products for which the updates in this post are relevant are listed in the table below. Since the updates vary with chipset, to update your hub, you must first determine it’s chipset. You may check the table below for expected chipset based on shipping date, however checking in device manager or system profiler for the device’s vendor and product ID’s is the more accurate and recommended method. Instructions to check this follow the table below.

	USB3-HUB81X4 4 Port	USB3-HUB7-81X
VL811	Units shipping from Mid-March 2013 have firmware v9.83- this is the latest available version. Older units shipped with firmware versions 9.20, 9.72, and 9.82- customers with any of these older versions should use the Plugable VL-811 USB 3.0 hub update utility.	Units sold until November 16, 2012 have the VL811 chipset. These units shipped with firmware versions 9.20, 9.72, and 9.82- customers with any of these older versions should use the Plugable VL-811 USB 3.0 hub update utility.
VL812		Units purchased from Amazon US after November 16, 2012 (January 17, 2013 for Amazon UK orders) have the VL812 chipset. Depending on your order date and location, these units may have had firmware version 8564, 8571, or 0701. Customers with any of these older versions should use the Plugable VL-812 USB 3.0 hub update utility.

The discontinued USB3-HUB4 (white) also used VL811 and can follow the same steps as the black four port using the Plugable VL811 USB 3.0 hub update utility.

How can I tell what chip and version of firmware I have?

Windows

To launch windows device manager, hit the Windows-R hot-key and run devmgmt.msc

Find your hub under “Universal Serial Bus controllers.” The device will typically be listed as a “Generic SuperSpeed USB Hub” although it may appear as a “Renesas USB 3.0 Hub” “AMD USB 3.0 Hub” or other entry depending on your system’s USB 3 host controller chipset and driver. Pictured below on the left, highlighted in a red box.
Right click on the device and choose “Properties” (not pictured).
From the properties window that comes up, select “Details.” After doing so the window will update to show information similar to what is pictured on the right below.
From the device’s details page, select “Hardware IDs” as pictured below on the right.

The firmware version can now be seen under the “Details” tab and “Hardware Ids” as pictured below, highlighted in blue on the bottom right.

Note the “REV” details listed after the VID and PID are the version numbers to check in the “Latest Firmware Versions by chip set” section below.

Mac

To launch Apple’s system profile, from the top right of your screen click the Apple Logo, choose “About This Mac” and click “More Info” on the screen that pops up. Another screen will appear: click the button here for “System Report.” Once system report is loaded, click on “USB” at the bottom of the “Hardware” section, and then find your USB hub. Different models of hub will display differently, however you’ll know you found the right device when you find one with the following details: in the lower right hand section of the next 2 images:

Product ID: 0×0812
Vendor ID: 0×2109 (Via Labs, Inc)

Note the OS X System profile entries for hub firmware version (both old version 8564 and new version 8571 are pictured below, two hubs were connected)

Mapping USB VID, PID, and REV to your chip and firmware version

VIA does not set USB REV to be consistently mapped to the firmware version, but you can map them like this:

Hardware Ids (USB VID, PID, and REV	VIA chip and firmware version
VID 2109, PID 0812, REV 8571	VIA VL812, firmware version 8581
VID 2109, PID 0811, REV 3198	VIA VL811, firmware version 9.83

Once you have your firmware version, you can compare against the latest available firmware versions.

Latest firmware versions by chipset

Chipset	Firmware
VL811	9.83
VL812	8581

Firmware Update Utility system compatibility

As mentioned before, the actual firmware update process requires a USB 3.0 capable Windows PC.

We’ve tested this firmware flash utility on 32 and 64 bit Windows 7, 64 bit Windows 8, as well as 32 bit Windows XP with good results. We were also able to successfully update the firmware on a hub running Windows 7×64 in BootCamp (Parallels and other virtual machines, however, will not work).

If you do not have access to a Windows PC with USB 3.0 support (or a BootCamp partition on your Mac) please contact support@plugable.com for assistance.

Updating VL811, VL811+, or VL812 USB 3 Hub Firmware

Download the appropriate firmware upgrade utility below. Save the file, do not run it from its current location.

Plugable VL-811 USB 3.0 hub update utility.

Plugable VL-812 USB 3.0 hub update utility.

After the file is downloaded, double click on the file, and follow the prompt: pressing Y (then enter) to continue when prompted.

The utility will either confirm that it has detected a VIA VL811 or VL812 hub and briefly show the current firmware version before proceeding with the update, or inform you if no hub is detected. Confirmation of whether the upgrade has completed successfully or failed will also be shown. This should happen within 15-30 seconds after launching the utility and pressing Y (then enter) when prompted.

After update has fully completed successfully, you must unplug both power and incoming USB to the hub to reset it. After waiting a few seconds, plug the power, then the USB cable to your PC back in. If you follow the steps above for checking the firmware version, you should see the newly applied version.

Please feel free to comment with your results and observations if you run into issues during the actual upgrade. We welcome your feedback, and will update the post with any improvements.

Thank you!