Toshiba Achieves Working Silicon on First Pass with Arasan's SD/SDIO Host Core

San Jose, CA -- Dec 19, 2005 -- Arasan Chip Systems today announced that Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) licensed the Standard SD / SDIO Host Controller IP Core from Arasan Chip Systems and has successfully taken the IP to silicon. 
 
“We are happy to have achieved working silicon with Arasan’s SDIO Host IP Core on the first pass.  Arasan’s ability to provide a complete solution from design services for customizing the IP, firmware and Linux stack is remarkable,” said Bob Uvacek, director of Design Engineering for SoC Design at Toshiba.
 
 “The lessons learned from meeting Toshiba’s stringent quality and delivery requirements will be applied to all our IPs.  It has been an invaluable experience for us,” said Rich Timpa, vice president of Worldwide Sales at Arasan.
 
Arasan’s Standard SD/SDIO Host Controller IP supports MMC Version 3.31, SD Memory Card Version 1.01 and SDIO Card Version 1.20 and is compliant to the Standard SD Host Controller Specifications Version 1.00.  Multi-slot support and security features (CPRM) are available as options.  A version of the host, which also supports MMC 4.0 cards and CE-ATA is available.
 
Arasan also sells its Host Controller in the form of a Hardware Development Kit (HDK) with BSquare drivers for Win CE 4.2 and is fully compatibility with Microsoft Win CE 5.0 and Win XP SP2.  Over 30 customers worldwide currently use the HDK as a driver development platform and a validation platform for SDIO Device Cards.  Arasan also provides SDIO Linux stack binary with the HDK.
 
Arasan participates in the interoperability sessions conducted by the SDA and tests its host with the latest SD and SDIO Cards to ensure a wide range of interoperability and compliance to the standard.
 
Licensees of Arasan’s SDIO Host core include companies like LSI Logic, ATI, Broadcom, nVidia, Intel, HP and over 20 other companies.  The IP is currently silicon proven on multiple products and is in production.
 
About the SDA
The SD Association (SDA) is an open industry standards organization established in January 2000 by leaders Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), SanDisk, and Toshiba, supported by a consortium of over 500 companies. The SDA's mission is to set industry standards for the SD Card and promote its wide acceptance in a variety of applications. The SD Card is a highly sophisticated memory device about the size of a postage stamp. SD Cards stand to revolutionize information, entertainment and communication by putting advanced digital storage technology quite literally at your fingertips. The SD Card standards are currently being built into a wide range of new digital products such as cellular phones, audio players, automotive multimedia systems, handheld PC's and video and digital still cameras.
 
About Arasan
Arasan Chip Systems Inc. founded in 1995, is a leading supplier of Reusable Intellectual Property (IPs) cores, semiconductors and electronic design services. Arasan’s product portfolio is focused on Bus Interfaces and includes IPs for USB 1.1 & 2.0, PCI and SD/SDIO and MMC technologies. Arasan’s products and services enable businesses to develop and leverage product design and development. Arasan Chip Systems is an executive member of SD Association (SDA) and Multimedia Card Association (MMCA).  Arasan is headquartered in San Jose, California, with design centers in India and support options available in Taiwan, China & Europe.