frankwas, I believe the USB repeater cables (for cables past 3ft/5m in length) contain a custom ASIC which is not really off-the-shelf, but i'm sure can be obtained. In other words, it is essentially a 1-port hub chip, which maxim does have several solutions available for.
OTOH, using a USB2 port, I was able to use a 5m cable (at USB1.1 speeds) for a variety of devices. However, not all devices like the length due to oscillator timing issues.