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JULY 15th, 2005
Chipidea and TransDimensions (TDI), two IP core providers, have
joined forces to offer a high-speed USB intellectual property solution. The new solution includes Chipidea’s Physical
Layer IP core and TransDimension’s High Speed USB IP core and associated software.
The new solution is expected to offer designers a faster way to
construct a USB-based system on a chip (SoC). Business Development Manager at Chipidea, Milton Sousa, gave his synopsis of
the solution, "We are granting our customers a complete solution encompassing the PHY, controller and software that will strongly
reduce time to market and minimize risk. Our experience demonstrates that this complete solution can save months of design
time and eliminate a great deal of frustration when compared to integrating IP from different sources. Our solution with TDI
provides the most complete, integrated solution available in the market."
JULY 11th, 2005
Icron Technologies Corp. (TSX.V:IT) has reported on an underwritten
placement for $3.6 million that is expected to close around July 21st, 2005, subject to the approval of regulators and governing
bodies. Suresh Singh, CEO at Icron indicated that the financing would help Icron in its efforts to increase its market share
in the wireless semiconductor market, "Icron has continued to execute on its plan to be the leader in wireless USB connectivity
solutions. The recent licensing agreement with Freescale was a significant validation of this. This financing further assists
Icron in maintaining its market lead by strengthening our resources to be able to effectively provide our ExtremeUSB for wireless
technology to other semiconductor companies requiring wireless USB 2.0 functionality."
The agreement between Freescale Semiconductor, which Mr. Singh refers
to, was announced in June of 2005. In that agreement, Freescale licensed Icron’s ExtremeUSB to embed into its Ultra
Wide Band (UWB) chipsets. Revenues from royalties are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year.
Icron offers its ExtremeUSB technology, which extends the range
of USB connectivity from 5 meters to 2 kilometers over UTP Cat5, Fiber and most RF transmission technologies. The company
also offers technology to extend DVI up to 500 meters. The products are marketed in either license, modules or system formats.
JULY 6th, 2005
ChipX has announced the CX6000 family of structured ASICs. Based
on a eight metal 0.13 micron technology, the family has been designed to expedite the development of USB based systems. In
order to accomplish that, the ASICs are available with a complete connected USB IP subsystem. According to Elie Massabki,
Vice President of Marketing at ChipX, "Normally, designers seeking to build USB capability into an ASIC must purchase a PHY,
a controller, and a processor, integrate them into their design, develop the software, then run the entire solution through
compliance testing. This process is arduous, time-consuming and full of risk, since the various IP blocks may not communicate
well. By providing our customers with a complete, compliance-capable solution, we can reduce their chip integration effort,
shorten their development cycle and maximize their chance of design success."
The CX6200 structured ASICs are available in versions from 140,000
to 1.8 million gates, with up to 1.2 Mbits of embedded SRAM. For synchronization solutions, the ASICs have four configurable,
low-jitter PLLs (Phase Locked Loops) that can be adjusted to have an output frequency from 10 MHz to 1 GHz. Pricing is under
$5.00 in unit volumes with production expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2005.
MAY 18th, 2005
PLD Applications' IP Core Revenue Up 87 Percent - Record Revenues
and Orders
PLD Applications (PLDA), a PCI Intellectual Property (IP) core company, reported that its revenue
for 2004 increased 87 percent. The company also reported that revenue and bookings for its first quarter of 2005 achieved
new records. Jean-Yves Brena, President of PLDA, gave reasons for the revenue increase, "We attribute our continuing growth
to two factors, a strong commitment to a loyal and growing client base and a long-term strategy designed to meet our clients'
present and future needs."
PLDA also reported that it signed PCI Express IP Core contracts
with several semiconductor companies. The company also listed a number of companies it is working with, which included many
tier one integrated circuit, EDA and electronic system companies as well as one of the worlds largest software companies.
The listed companies included Agere Systems, Agilent Technologies, Alcatel, Atmel, Cisco Systems, Freescale Semiconductor,
Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Matsushita, Mentor Graphics, Microsoft, PMC-Sierra, Quantum, Sony and Sun Microsystems.
PLDA has sold over 500 licenses.
With the report, Arnaud Schleich, Vice President of PLDA implied
that the success of the company was due to low cost and easy to use IP Core products, "The adoption cost has never been lower
in both financial terms and integration time."
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