USB 3.0 is just around the corner, with us having reported about more and more compatible devices in the last few months. And now Taiwan-based PC accessory maker VIA has readied the so-called VIA VL810 SuperSpeed Hub Controller, the world’s first USB 3.0 hub controller. It supports data transfer speeds of  up to 5Gb/s and features one upstream and four downstream  ports.

The controller is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, but data transfer rates are up to ten times slower in that case. The five ports support Hi-Speed (480Mbps), Full-Speed (12Mbps) and Low-Speed (1.5Mbps) data traffic. VIA says the controller is ideal for those users who, for example, need to backup HDDs or quickly move HD video files from one device to the other.

The company plans to demo the controller at the CES later this week.