Innostor Technology IS611 USB 3.0 SATA+IDE Bridge Controller 2013~2019

[Kiriakos GR]

Innostor Technology IS611 (Taiwan), this is a USB 3.0 SATA+IDE Bridge Controller, first release at 2013.

This brand was a chip manufacturer of several USB Bridge Controller, up to the year 2019.
At that year the brand decided to end their activities, due the fact that their profitability shrink, because USB 3.0 products market this started to shrink too.

Innostor IS611 latest revision specifications cannot be found, their website this is not active anymore.
First revision IS611 (2013) this was supporting:
— Support for 2TB drives
— SATA II, 3Gbps and SATA I, 1.5Gbps
— ATA/ATAPI-7 Spec (PATA UDMA-6 133MB/s)
— Firmware update via USB port
— Hot plug support
— Simultaneous use of three drives
— Support for USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 (rev 1.0)
 
Nowadays, IS611 chip (remaining stock) this still circulates within several almost identical products of USB 3.0 SATA+IDE Bridge's.
The only difference this is revision of firmware in use, and the issue might be maximum HDD size support.
Old revision supported 2TB, a later revision supported up to 4TB, and in theory the latest revision supports up to 6TB.

While LogiLink AU0028A (product of 2018) this mention.
*Max. SATA HDD Capacity: 10TB
*Max. IDE HDD Capacity: Depending on the IDE HDD

Regarding USB 3.0 bandwidth, while the theoretical maximum, this is 5Gbps, this controller supports SATA II 3Gbps.
SATA II 3Gbps equates to about 300 MB/s theoretical bandwidth.
Real world MB/s for USB 3.0 this is 215 MB/s at USB 3.0, and 42 MB/s at USB 2.0 port (benchmark SSD Kingston SA400S37/240G (240GB)).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have an eye to such a modern controller for some time, as I was looking to also buy a USB 3.0 capable controller.
Because my older USB 2.0 to IDE, this was having a great difficulty to support a stable connection with my 2TB WD Gold HDD.
Even so, my older USB 2.0 to IDE, this it did succeed to format both of my new HDD a year ago.

November 2024, I found at sweet price this controller and I did ordered one.
And soon I will be able to perform a detailed analysis.   

Supported hardware:
3.5" IDE Port = HDD , CD-RW, DVD-RW (with molex plug connected too)
2.5" IDE Port = HDD
SATA II port  = HDD, DVD-RW?

Supported software:
Windows format
HDD utilities Low-level format   

Notes:
* Innostor IS611 chip provides S.M.A.R.T. data only for SATA disks.
* IDE drives must be jumpered to "Master"

[Kiriakos GR]

Innostor IS611 USB3/SATA/PATA Controller Firmware Version 09.37

Copyright Innostor Technology Corporation
All Rights Reserved.
Date : 2017/09/11 09:32:43
Innostor Product Name : IS611

File Attached.

Notes: This flasher utility will upgrade products of 2015 or older, up to the year of 09/2017.
Newer IS611 production, it might not need it.
Either way, this is a great tool so to review IS611 internal firmware version.

[Kiriakos GR]

IS611 USB 3.0 single chip SATA/PATA combo bridge controller

IS611 is a highly-integrated single chip USB3.0 to SATA/PATA combo bridge controller.
IS611 fully supports USB1.1/2.0/3.0 host, SATA I/II device and ATA/ATAPI device.
It connects USB host and the external devices such as HDD, ODD or SSDIS611 fully supports.
The USB, SATA and PATA engines comply with Universal Serial Bus specification 3.0, Serial ATA.
IS611 implements the full USB Mass Storage Class specification ver.1.0, Bulk-Only protocol and complies.

Features:
– Quick devices recognition
– Connect three devices at the same time (SATA x 1, PATA x 2)
– Build-in SPI flash
– Build-in 5 to 3.3 LDO
– Compliant with Universal Serial Bus 3.0 Spec Rev 1.0 (SuperSpeed, 5Gbps)
– Backward compatible with Universal Serial Bus Spec Rev 2.0 (High-Speed, 480Mbps)
– Backward compatible with Universal Serial Bus Spec Rev 1.0 (Full-Speed, 12Mbps)
– Compliance with USB Mass Storage Class Spec Rev 1.0, Bulk-Only Transport
– Compliant with Serial ATA Spec Rev 2.6 (SATA II, 3Gbps and SATA I, 1.5Gbps)
– Compliant with ATA/ATAPI-7 Spec (PATA UDMA-6 133MB/s)
– Support Windows 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2000 / ME, Mac OS 9 / 10 and Linux Operating System
– Support dynamic HDD motor spin down
– SPI flash for vender specific VID/PID setting
– Support firmware update through USB port
– Single 30MHz clock input
– Support SATA Asynchronous Signal Recovery (Hot Plug)
– Support ATA/ATAPI PACKET command set and Pass-Through command
– Support ATA/ATAPI LBA48 bit addressing mode
– Support ATA/ATAPI Ultra DMA Mode 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
– Support ATA/ATAPI PIO Mode 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
– Support HDD capacity larger than 2TB application
– One Touch Backup solution ready

Free Application Software:
– One Touch Back Utility

[Kiriakos GR]

Every day I do discover something new about Innostor IS611.

Under a user review, I found a photograph, this demonstrating this controller to function also with IDE to memory card converter's = two of them.
Additionally I did a zoomed photograph of the PCB, for comparison purposes, when I will get my own PCB.
 

[Kiriakos GR]

Innostor Free backup utility  (compatibility with your IS611 must be verified).
Download link for AI-OTB V1.3.0.5   (file signature 24/3/2014)
https://assets.tripplite.com/drivers/ai-otb-driver-read-release-notes.zip


Attached Innostor IS611 datasheet.
And by this file, I have now a complete copy, of any resources that Innostor Technology (Taiwan) this shared with the world when was still alive.