NEW ASMEDIA Firmware Bring ASMEDIA 3142 to USB 3.2 Speed

[MirceaForce]

I just flashed it without any issues however which USB hub is the one that i just updated?

I think the ones that are supported by Asmedia

I will try also to flash my Asus R6E omega and will come with a feedback

[BenJW]

Thanks for sharing. On my R6EE (Encore), the FW update tool detected two out of three Asmedia controllers, for which the update apparently worked fine. Other than the changed FW version, I did not notice any changes.

According to HWiNFO, the R6EE comes with

• 2x ASMedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller (each on a PCIe 3.0 x2 Link) <-- these are probably the ones that were updated
• 1x ASMedia ASM3242 USB 3.2 xHCI Controller (on a PCIe 3.0 x4 Link) <-- already supports USB 3.2 out of the box (even before update)

After the update, both ASM2142s are still detected as USB 3.1 devices, so I don't know what exactly the firmware update improved for those devices. Also, the linked station-drivers article does not mention any improvements such as support for more recent USB revisions ("USB 3.2") or faster speed. Do you have a source that specifies what exactly the update changes?

Since the 2142s are internally connected on PCIe 3.0 x2 links, they are physically capped anyways to max 16Gbps, i.e. they simply couldn't do 20Gbps on a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection even if the firmware update would bring support for Gen2x2. (Maybe this is different on other boards such as R6E or R6EO...)

Edit: So maybe this update only brings the "USB 3.2 Speed" improvement specifically to the 3142 controller (effectively advancing it to a 3242)?

[everettfsargent]

Thanks for sharing. On my R6EE (Encore), the FW update tool detected two out of three Asmedia controllers, for which the update apparently worked fine. Other than the changed FW version, I did not notice any changes.

According to HWiNFO, the R6EE comes with

• 2x ASMedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller (each on a PCIe 3.0 x2 Link) <-- these are probably the ones that were updated
• 1x ASMedia ASM3242 USB 3.2 xHCI Controller (on a PCIe 3.0 x4 Link) <-- already supports USB 3.2 out of the box (even before update)

After the update, both ASM2142s are still detected as USB 3.1 devices, so I don't know what exactly the firmware update improved for those devices. Also, the linked station-drivers article does not mention any improvements such as support for more recent USB revisions ("USB 3.2") or faster speed. Do you have a source that specifies what exactly the update changes?

Since the 2142s are internally connected on PCIe 3.0 x2 links, they are physically capped anyways to max 16Gbps, i.e. they simply couldn't do 20Gbps on a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection even if the firmware update would bring support for Gen2x2. (Maybe this is different on other boards such as R6E or R6EO...)

Edit: So maybe this update only brings the "USB 3.2 Speed" improvement specifically to the 3142 controller (effectively advancing it to a 3242)?

AFAIK there are no ASM2142 chips on the R6EE motherboard ...
https://www.ixbt.com/platform/asus-r...re-review.html
In Russian (but using Google Translate and their inlined images) I get ...
Upper Left Hand Side (ULHS next to rear I/O ports or back side)
One ASM3242
One ASM3142
One ASM1543
One ASM1074
Lower Right Hand Side (LRHS next to SATA ports or front side)
One ASM3142
Two ASM1543
One ASM1074

(BTW, this is the most detailed review of the R6EE that I have found to date)

Except for the three USB 2.0 ports (one rear and two front) there are 17 USB 3.2 ports (twelve of these are USB 3.2 Gen 1) according to the Asus product manual (i. e. USB 3.1 is never mentioned).

The only way to know for sure is with a before/after test of all ports using a reasonably fast NVMe SSD for both internal/external file transfers with the proper I/O ports (Type A and C).

IMHO the R6EE does not require this firmware update if the USB 3.2 ports are as claimed in the R6EE manual.

[BenJW]

AFAIK there are no ASM2142 chips on the R6EE motherboard ...
https://www.ixbt.com/platform/asus-r...re-review.html
In Russian (but using Google Translate and their inlined images) I get ...
Upper Left Hand Side (ULHS next to rear I/O ports or back side)
One ASM3242
One ASM3142
One ASM1543
One ASM1074
Lower Right Hand Side (LRHS next to SATA ports or front side)
One ASM3142
Two ASM1543
One ASM1074

(BTW, this is the most detailed review of the R6EE that I have found to date)

Except for the three USB 2.0 ports (one rear and two front) there are 17 USB 3.2 ports (twelve of these are USB 3.2 Gen 1) according to the Asus product manual (i. e. USB 3.1 is never mentioned).

The only way to know for sure is with a before/after test of all ports using a reasonably fast NVMe SSD for both internal/external file transfers with the proper I/O ports (Type A and C).

IMHO the R6EE does not require this firmware update if the USB 3.2 ports are as claimed in the R6EE manual.

Interesting, also thanks for sharing the review link.

So it seems the ASM3142 is just a more energy-efficient refresh of the ASM2142, which could also explain why HWiNFO confuses the two (see e.g. here).
If the review is correct, then what is still funny is the allocation of just one PCIe link to each of those ASM3142s (while HWiNFO reports a x2 connection), which would limit the bandwidth to merely 8Gbps per controller - so no point at all in supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 with 20 Gbps as they cannot even do USB 3.1 Gen 2 (x1) with full 10Gbps.

On the other hand, the ASM3242 which definitely supports one USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection with 20Gbps gets 4 PCIe lanes (32 Gbps). Not sure why 4 PCIe lanes are needed here: It seems that 3 would have been sufficient to provide 24Gbps; i.e., one lane is wasted which could have been additionally allocated to one of the ASM3142s, so it could handle one full 10Gbps or two 8Gbps USB Gen2 devices...

Maybe some of the ASUS staff can provide some insight into this? (Generally it would be nice to get official block diagrams of mainboards to see how things are connected and thus how much bandwidth is allocated to them. The marketing department probably wouldn't like that since they couldn't write "board has an XYZ USB controller that 'supports' 20Gbps". Well yes, the controller does, but in practice, the mainboard will never reach that advertised speed since it's connection to that controller is phyiscally limited.)

[SilentOption]

Will this work on Asus Strix X299 Gaming II? Nevermind I just found out it does have USB 3.2 on it already

[MirceaForce]

Thanks for sharing. On my R6EE (Encore), the FW update tool detected two out of three Asmedia controllers, for which the update apparently worked fine. Other than the changed FW version, I did not notice any changes.

According to HWiNFO, the R6EE comes with

• 2x ASMedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller (each on a PCIe 3.0 x2 Link) <-- these are probably the ones that were updated
• 1x ASMedia ASM3242 USB 3.2 xHCI Controller (on a PCIe 3.0 x4 Link) <-- already supports USB 3.2 out of the box (even before update)

After the update, both ASM2142s are still detected as USB 3.1 devices, so I don't know what exactly the firmware update improved for those devices. Also, the linked station-drivers article does not mention any improvements such as support for more recent USB revisions ("USB 3.2") or faster speed. Do you have a source that specifies what exactly the update changes?

Since the 2142s are internally connected on PCIe 3.0 x2 links, they are physically capped anyways to max 16Gbps, i.e. they simply couldn't do 20Gbps on a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection even if the firmware update would bring support for Gen2x2. (Maybe this is different on other boards such as R6E or R6EO...)

Edit: So maybe this update only brings the "USB 3.2 Speed" improvement specifically to the 3142 controller (effectively advancing it to a 3242)?

I have the omega and did not see any differences in terms of speed....but will test further