inSilicon And Sonics Collaborate On Highly Flexible Soc Platform Solutions

inSilicon And Sonics Collaborate On Highly Flexible Soc Platform Solutions

Sonics Inc.
2440 W. El Camino Real, Suite 620
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 938-2500
www.sonicsinc.com
www.socworks.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information Contact:
Ed Smith (Sonics, Inc.) 650-938-2500 ext. 126, edsmith@sonicsinc.com
Scott Seiden (VitalCom) 650-637-8212 ext. 208, scott@vitalcompr.com
Gervais Fong (inSilicon) 408-570-1650, gervais_fong@insilicon.com

Sonics, Inc. and inSilicon Corporation (NASDAQ: INSN) today jointly announced an easily adaptable system-on-chip (SOC) platform solution that uses a configurable Sonics MicroNetwork to integrate inSilicon's USB Host Controller, IEEE-1394 Host Controller, Ethernet MAC, and PCI cores. The agility of the SOC platform is enabled by the combination of inSilicon's cores with fully validated bridge logic linking their native interface to the industry standard Open Core Protocol (OCP).

Re-validating inSilicon's intellectual property (IP) cores into OCP-compliant solutions allow inSilicon??ustomers to take immediate advantage of the "plug-and-play" integration benefits delivered by Sonics MicroNetworks. Assembling multiple inSilicon IP cores into socket-based SOC designs without having to rework the core interfaces significantly shortens time-to-integration, appreciably shortens the verification challenge and simplifies the creation of derivative products.

"Through this joint undertaking, inSilicon continues to show its leadership as a major supplier of standards-based IP cores," said Dave Lautzenheiser, vice president of marketing at Sonics. "The socket-based design approach embodied by Sonics MicroNetworks provides a fast, automated means for integrating IP cores into an SOC design. Our mutual customers now have access to a full family of host controllers and I/O cores that they can rapidly integrate into complex SOC designs using our MicroNetwork."

The solution includes the OCP compliant conversion logic and synthesis scripts to form a complete SOC integration solution. The offering is available immediately at no charge to inSilicon's USB Host Controller, IEEE-1394 Host Controller, Ethernet MAC, and PCI core users. Sonics also offers design services for MicroNetwork customers needing resources for adapting their proprietary or commercial IP cores to be compliant with the OCP standard.

"The rapid integration of inSilicon's controller and I/O technology using a Sonics MicroNetwork will reduce SOC design and verification cycles," said Andrew Allansmith, partner marketing manager at inSilicon. "The standard interface and configurable SOC communication technology of the Sonics MicroNetwork also improve time-to-market and reusability for SOC designers."

An application example using this solution is shown in Figure 1 attached. The application is a single-chip SOHO router that integrates a MIPS32[tm] 4Kc[tm] CPU as the system controller, two inSilicon 10/100 Ethernet MACs (WAN-side and LAN-side), an inSilicon USB Host, embedded synchronous SRAM, a DRAM memory controller and an inSilicon PCI bus interface, all interconnected by a configurable Sonics MicroNetwork. Socket-based SOC design enables immediate addition or removal without re-work of any OCP-compliant core for unparalleled design simplicity and flexibility.

The platform can be immediately explored and simulated on Sonics' SOCworks website.

About inSilicon
inSilicon Corporation (Nasdaq: INSN) is a leading provider of communications semiconductor intellectual property used by semiconductor and systems companies to design systems-on-chip that are critical components of innovative wired and wireless products. inSilicon's technology provides customers faster time-to-market and reduced risk and development cost. The company's broad portfolio of analog and mixed-signal products and enabling communications technologies, including the JVX[tm] and JVXtreme[tm] Accelerators, Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB, PCI, and IEEE-1394, are used in a wide variety of markets encompassing communications, consumer, computing, and office automation.

About Sonics, Inc.
Sonics, Inc., the premier developer of MicroNetworks for "plug and play" integration of semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores into system-on-chip (SOC) designs, is a privately held company in Mountain View, California. A Sonics MicroNetwork manages all communications between SOC subsystems, guarantees end-to-end performance, and ensures real-time quality of service. MicroNetwork technology enables flexible, platform-based SOC design through a robust development environment that uses an open standard core interface, the Open Core Protocol (OCP). Major semiconductor and systems companies have adopted Sonics' technology for SOC applications in the communications, networking and multimedia markets, reporting results such as six-month time savings, 80+ percent bandwidth utilization, and reduced design and silicon manufacturing risks. For more information, see http://www.sonicsinc.com.