Sonics Participates in TSMC's Soft IP Kit 2.0 Beta Program

Driving High Quality Soft IP Eases Customer Integration and Expedites Time-to-Market

MILPITAS, CA-- Nov 20, 2012 -- Sonics, Inc., the leading supplier of system IP for cloud-scale SoCs, today announced the company is participating in TSMC's Soft IP Kit 2.0 beta test, part of the TSMC Soft-IP9000 Quality Assessment program. Sonics is working with TSMC to ensure that Sonics' advanced on-chip network and memory scheduling IP meet the rigorous quality requirements set by TSMC, enabling TSMC's customers the highest level of confidence when using soft IP from TSMC.

The Soft IP Kit 2.0 represents an enhanced set of checks that build upon TSMC's existing Soft IP Kit, improving kit setup and flow execution while implementing more rigorous checks to ensure the highest quality IP. These improvements include advance lint checks along with additional physical implementation aspects of the design, such as area, timing and congestion. A key part of the design flow is the use of SpyGlass® from Atrenta, providing all the critical RTL checks for a high level of code coverage along with improved report dashboards that show additional design parameters, and improved IP packaging.

"As a leader in system IP, Sonics IP is now essential to execute a successful SoC design strategy," said Jack Browne, vice president of marketing at Sonics. "Our customers want the confidence to know that the IP they choose is of the highest quality and can be quickly integrated into their design flow and produce the SoC they set out to create at accelerated speeds. Early collaboration with TSMC and Atrenta is essential to achieving this goal and together taking soft IP quality, ease-of-use and time-to-market to the next level."

"The soft IP Kit 2.0 promotes continuous quality improvement, and we are pleased to have Sonics among TSMC's early contributors to the Soft IP ecosystem," said Suk Lee, TSMC Senior Director, Design Infrastructure Marketing. "Having system IP suppliers such as Sonics participating gives designers a comprehensive, high-performance portfolio of soft IP to optimize SoC integration, power and area."

"Sonics is a leading supplier of System IP and having the company validate its IP through our SpyGlass platform ensures designers the best possible portfolio of soft IP to work with," said Mike Gianfagna, vice president of corporate marketing at Atrenta. "The most advanced and reliable IP possible is demanded for today's increasingly complex SoCs, and we are thrilled to continue our work with Sonics."

On October 16, Sonics announced that its licensee shipments surpassed 2 billion units worldwide, fueled by the growing demand for high-bandwidth content on cloud-connected devices. Following this achievement, the company also announced its next-generation SonicsGN on-chip network with performance improvements and advanced new features that will help designers build new SoCs that power a new generation of cloud-connected devices, accelerating Sonics' time to shipping another 2 billion units worldwide.

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 137 patent properties to date and has enabled its customers to ship more than two billion chips worldwide. Founded in 1996, Sonics is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. with offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.sonicsinc.com and www.sonicsinc.com/blog.