Nufront Selects Sonics' Complete Line of System IP for Family of Advanced Applications Processors

Chinese Silicon Innovator Integrates Industry's Only GHz NoC to Design Highly Advanced Applications Processors for Mobile Market

MILPITAS, CA, Jul 25, 2012 -- Sonics, Inc.(R), the leading supplier of system IP for cloud-scale SoCs, today announced that Beijing Nufront, one of China's fastest growing and innovative systems and silicon providers, has selected Sonics' complete portfolio of system IP for their advanced roadmap of applications processors targeting the mobile and cloud computing markets. Integrating the industry's most advanced network-on-chip (NoC) and only GHz NoC on the market today, Nufront has licensed SonicsGN(TM) to harness the highest system performance to run multiple high-speed applications simultaneously.

The new multi-generation agreement further extends Nufront's previous license of SonicsSX and is targeting a newer generation of performance-driven, mobile computing devices. Today, Nufront offers one of the most comprehensive silicon solutions for both baseband and application processors -- targeting mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets, smart TVs, in addition to other popular cloud-computing devices.

Additionally, Nufront recently entered mass-production with its NS115 dual-core, low-power applications processor featuring the high-performance, low latency SonicsSX. The NS115 is a highly-integrated device with dual ARM Cortex A9 1.5 GHz CPU cores, 3D graphics with ARM's Mali-400 MP, dual camera support and video encode and decode. The processor also uses other popular Sonics system IP, including the MemMax memory scheduler to implement a variety of system-level power management techniques for multiple voltage domain partitioning, asynchronous clock domains, coarse- and fine-grained clock gating and high-efficiency bus utilization.

"Nufront continues to innovate at a rapid pace and has made significant strides in the low-power, mobile computing market with the introduction of the NS115," said Rock Yang, vice president of Marketing at Nufront. "This is a major milestone for the company and our close collaboration with Sonics was integral in achieving the superior system performance and best-in-class power efficiencies. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Sonics as a true IP innovator, and to deliver our long-term product strategy of building market-leading mobile processors."

SonicsGN: 2X the Performance, 1/2 the System Power, Highly Optimized Area

Introduced last September, SonicsGN incorporates 2x the performance and half the system power of other competitive offerings. SonicsGN closely aligns with the evolution of the company's network architecture, expanding Sonics' broad portfolio of system IP, including innovative memory subsystems and sophisticated development tools. As Sonics' flagship performance NoC, SonicsGN combines the highest frequency and advanced concurrency support, giving SoC designers the ability to run multiple high-speed applications simultaneously -- which is vital for any of today's smart cloud-computing devices.

"Nufront has exploded in the mobile market, and as its long-term, valued design partner, we share some exciting synergies as Sonics continues to help semiconductor leaders scale to the cloud," said Jack Browne, senior vice president of marketing for Sonics. "Nufront's rapid success speaks to the company's innovation and leadership, and demonstrates the strength of Sonics' unique technology and ability to quickly and cost-effectively help companies develop world-class applications processors for the mobile market."

About Nufront

Nufront was founded in 2004 by several Chinese overseas returnees from Silicon Valley. Nufront is a highly innovative startup which designs a broad range of technologies, including wireless communications systems, video search systems and digital image processing systems. Nufront has extensive partnerships in China with industry-leading companies, first-class Chinese universities and academic institutes. For more information, visit: www.nufront.com .

About Sonics

Sonics, Inc. is the leader of system IP for cloud-scale SoCs. As a pioneer of network-on-chip (NoC) technology, Sonics offers SoC designers one of the world's largest portfolios of system IP for mobile, digital entertainment, wireless and home networking. With a broad array of silicon-proven IP, Sonics helps designers eliminate memory bottlenecks associated with complex, high-speed SoC design, streamline and unify data flows and solve persistent network challenges in embedded systems with multiple cores. Sonics has more than 110 patent properties to date and has enabled its customers to ship more than one billion chips worldwide. Founded in 1996, Sonics is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. with offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.sonicsinc.com , www.sonicsinc.com/blog , and follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/sonicsinc .