USB chipset information


A brief guide to the three most widely available USB to serial chipsets

SiLabs CP2102

Produced by Silicon Laboratories, Inc. A global supplier, H.Q. in the United States.
We have sold thousands of cables with this chipset and have found them to be consistently reliable, with no problems with drivers.

Our standard USB cables use this chipset.

FTDI FT232

FTDI are based in Scotland in the United Kingdom. They specialise in USB to serial devices and their products are widely regarded as the best in their class. Drivers are updated regularly and work with the widest range of operating systems.

Our premium USB cables use this chipset.

Prolific PL2303

Made by Prolific of Taiwan. Most cheap cables use this chipset. Plagued by buggy drivers and unreliable counterfeit chips. Often new drivers refuse to work with fake chips. Prolific stopped supporting their older chips when Windows 8 was released leading to much confusion.

We don't currently use any Prolific chips in our cables.


Compatibility information

SiLabs CP2102


  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8 and 8.1
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows XP
  • Windows 2000
  • Linux
  • Mac


32 and 64 bit operating systems are both supported.

Links to download latest drivers here.


FTDI FT232


  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8 and 8.1
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows XP
  • Windows ME
  • Windows 98
  • Linux
  • Mac OS X
  • Mac OS 9
  • Mac OS 8
  • Windows CE.NET (Version 4.2 and greater)
  • Android

32 and 64 bit operating systems are both supported.

Links to download latest drivers here.


Note for Linux users: The standard Linux kernel has supported all three of these chipsets for many years, so they should just work with most modern distributions without loading any software. All our cables are tested with Linux as well as Windows.



Please kindly note: We are mail order only and do not have facilities for callers at our warehouse/workshop. If you require something urgently, we can usually get items to you next day.