picoTurbo Announces picoPACK SOC Peripherals Based on the AMBA Bus

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2001--picoTurbo(TM)Inc., a premier developer of 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors designed for use with applications that require ARM® (version 4T) instructions, today announced the picoPACK(TM) platform.

It contains a broad range of AMBA(TM)(advanced microcontroller bus architecture)-based reusable peripheral IP components required for advanced SOC designs with picoTurbo microprocessor cores. The picoPACK platform provides a fully working SOC framework design based on the AMBA bus, an open bus standard from ARM, plus key synthesizable modules for typical functions required by SOC applications.

The picoPACK family of peripherals is modular and flexible, giving customers many options in the design of SOCs based on the AMBA bus. It contains memory interfaces, bus bridges to AHB (AMBA high-performance bus), APB (AMBA peripheral bus), PCI (peripheral component interface) and VCI (virtual component interface), LCD (liquid crystal display) controllers, timers and GPIO (general purpose I/O). SOC designers can use the picoPACK platform as a stand-alone microprocessor SOC design or develop a more complex SOC by adding other IP blocks. As picoPACK provides all of the required functionality for a basic SOC design, customers will enjoy a shorter development cycle, less design risk and reduced development and IP sourcing costs.

Bruno Kajiyama, Vice President of Marketing for picoTurbo, stated: ``As designs become more complex, SOC designers are faced with the integration of different IP blocks, time-to-market pressure and verification challenges. picoPACK is our answer to those issues, helping our customers to decrease their SOC development cycle and costs. It provides customers with a turn-key solution based on industry-standard buses, that can be expanded with other IP blocks. picoPACK is an excellent SOC platform for a wide variety of applications.''

An added benefit of the picoPACK design platform is the easy integration of components. As a result of picoPACK's modularity, flexibility and complete package of components, SOC products developed by picoTurbo's customers will be faster to market, easier to design and lower in cost. picoPACK is available for licensing immediately.

The components of the picoPACK SOC platform are:     --  AHB Arbiter & Decoder     --  APB Bridge
    --  Flash/SRAM Memory Controller
    --  SDRAM Memory Controller
    --  Internal Memory I/F
    --  VCI Bridge
    --  PCI Bridge
    --  Interrupt Controller
    --  Timers/Watchdog
    --  LCD Controller I/F     --  General Purpose IO
    --  High-level Data Link Controller

About picoTurbo, Inc.

picoTurbo, Inc. is a premier provider of 16/32-bit RISC microprocessor cores, designed for use with applications that require ARM® (version 4T) instructions. picoTurbo's flexible business model delivers high-performance, cost-effective, low-power microprocessor IP to SOC designers. PicoTurbo is headquartered in Silicon Valley, Calif., USA, with an additional design center in Taiwan and distributors in the U.S., Canada, UK, Israel and Taiwan. For more information on picoTurbo, please visit the web site at www.picoturbo.com or call company headquarters at 408/586-8801, fax 408/586-8802 or send an email to info@picoturbo.com.

picoTurbo, picoTurbo logo, pT-100, pT-110, pT-120, pT-110-Ax, DesignerNet, picoBOOST, picoPACK, Design without Limits and Turn-key IP are trademarks of picoTurbo, Inc. ARM is a registered trademark and AMBA is a trademark of ARM. Ltd.