ChipX Strengthens Video and Wireless ASIC Capability With Addition of 10-Bit, 210Msps Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) Family to IP Portfolio

Update: GigOptix, Inc. Announces Acquisition of ChipX (November 10, 2009)

Fully Featured Current Steering DAC Offered in Single, Dual or Triple Channel Versions Is Ideal for Medical, Industrial, Video Imaging and Wireless Mixed-Signal System Chips

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Jun 30, 2008 -- ChipX, Inc., a mixed-signal ASIC company providing the industry's broadest offering of low-risk solutions, today announced the addition of a family of 10-bit, 210Msps current steering DACs to its extensive line-up of analog and mixed-signal IP.

Designed for high speed applications, the single, dual, triple and multi-channel ChipX DACs are ideal for system-chip designs used in component (RGB) or composite video encoding, WiMAX or 802.11 front-ends, and a variety of medical and industrial products. Fully characterized in high-volume process technologies of ChipX foundry partners, the DACs can be combined with other proven ChipX communications, memory and microcontroller IP for System-on-Chip designs.

"ChipX is committed to providing its ASIC customers with proven, ready-to-integrate IP building blocks needed for complete system-chip designs," said Elie Massabki, Vice President of Marketing for ChipX. "We put the talent of our in-house analog team to work to develop this DAC family, with the goal of reducing the risk and potential higher cost of licensing third party analog IP and integrating it with digital blocks."

Technical Details

Conversion speeds from DC to 210Msps are achievable in 130nm depending on configuration. Multi-channel (two or more) solutions can share resources, such as the built-in reference source, to optimize space and power requirements, or have individual references for design flexibility. The DACs are capable of driving up to 34.5mA per channel into 75 Ohm differential terminations, for 1.2V level signals compatible with most video standards. Subjective image tests show a significant improvement when comparing a standard test image displayed by the ChipX DAC to a standard PC graphics card, in the same resolution.

In addition to a small die area the DACs support a variety of power limiting technologies to achieve typical active power consumption of 120mW per channel at maximum frequency, 10mW in standby mode and 4uW in power down mode. Applications requiring less than the maximum drive strength can conserve significant power by changing a single reference resistor.

Each of the DAC family members includes reference circuits, simple processor interface, and output buffers, and a demonstration platform is available on request. They can be integrated with the full range of ChipX building blocks -- including USB 2.0, PCI Express, DDR/DDR2, ARM(926) or BA12/22 processors to create a System on Chip (SoC) -- in mixed-signal Hybrid ASIC, Embedded Array or Standard Cell products today.

About ChipX

ChipX, Inc. is a Mixed-Signal ASIC company with the broadest offering of value-added ASIC solutions, including Standard Cell, Structured ASIC, Embedded Array and Hybrid ASIC technology. ChipX has unique expertise in PCI Express, USB 2.0, DDR/DDR2 and data conversion mixed-signal cores; all are silicon proven and certified and they can be integrated in customers' ASICs with a record first-time to market success. ChipX products are widely used in consumer equipment, computing peripherals, communication systems, instrumentation and industrial control, medical equipment and military/aerospace systems. Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, ChipX is a privately held corporation, with a Research and Development subsidiary in Israel. Investors include Elron Electronic Industries, Ltd., VantagePoint Venture Partners, Wasserstein Venture Capital, UMC and Needham Capital Partners.