Fujitsu, Toshiba report on merged SoC efforts

The final form of the companies' merged system LSI operations is still not clear, however, and the companies said they are still discussing whether they will form a single unified operation.

Fujitsu and Toshiba said they are focusing on three areas where collaboration is most practical: the joint development of a design infrastructure for 90-nanometer nd 65-nm products; the joint development of advanced process technologies for 90-nm and 65-nm generation devices; and the possible development of SoC solutions. While some SoC application areas have been chosen, the companies said the r ange is still broad, including such areas as digital home networks and mobile networks.

In one sign of progress, the companies said engineers from both companies are working together to develop common intellectual property (IP) cores for USB, PCI, serial interfaces, image/video-related applications, encryption technologies, D/A converters, A/D converters and PLLs.

The companies intend to complete their plans by the end of the next fiscal year in March 2004.