Silicon Motion Technology, which designs NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, has announced what it claims is the world's first single-channel USB3.0 flash drive controller which supports Windows To Go, an enterprise feature of Windows 8.

A Windows To Go workspace can be booted from a USB flash drive on any PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8. The new Silicon Motion SM3261 solution delivers data transfer rates of up to 100MB/s read and 50MB/s write, according to the company.

"We are pleased to have secured several design wins for SM3261 with flash drive OEMs, including most of the tier-one OEMs," said Silicon Motion president and CEO Wallace Kou in a statement. "Flash drives using our SM3261 will be available in the first quarter of 2013, including some that have already been announced at the 2013 International CES by leading US brands."

The SM3261 controller is designed for the vast majority of NAND flash, including 2x/2y/1x nm MLC, TLC and high speed Toggle and ONFI DDR NAND manufactured by Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, SanDisk, SK Hynix, Micron Technology or Intel, Silicon Motion disclosed. For flash drive applications, the solution supports high capacity by managing up to four NAND flash dies with write protection, PC boot-up, password protection, and secure partition.

The SM3261 controller is available in a 48-pin QFN green package, and fits the mainstream size of USB2.0 flash drive module board, 14x33mm, for 2-TSOP or COB solutions.