EnSilica declares "Open Season" on the 8051

Special license-matching deal to encourage 8051 microcontroller users to switch over to eSi-1600

Wokingham and Cambridge, UK – July 28, 2010.  EnSilica, a leading independent provider of front-end IC design services, has announced a special licensing deal to encourage existing 8051 licensees to switch their next ASIC design start to an eSi-1600 16-bit soft processor core.  For all enquiries received before 31st January 2011 and subject to Terms and Conditions, EnSilica is offering to match their 8051 license fee.

“We have declared ‘Open Season’ on the 8051,” said David Wheeler, Technical Director of EnSilica. “Where a small and relatively inexpensive processor is required, the 8051 is probably still the most popular choice. However, the eSi-1600 offers considerable additional benefits over even the most optimised 8051, particularly in terms of low power and silicon area which are so important in today’s competitive marketplace. What’s more, the eSi-1600 soft processor core delivers these additional benefits at a very competitive price.”

EnSilica’s eSi-1600 provides 65 times the performance of the original 8051 (Dhrystone DMIPs/MHz) and more than 5 times the performance of the fastest, enhanced 8051. This allows the clock to be disabled for 80% of the time relative to an 8051, delivering significant power savings. Comparing the Dhrystone kernel size, the eSi-1600’s mixed 16/32-bit instruction set occupies only 60% of the code size required by the 8051, providing substantial savings in silicon area and power associated with the program memory. The eSi-1600’s core size of just 8.5k gates is more than a match for even the most optimised 8051.

“This offer to match their licensee fee gives 8051 users a truly compelling reason to reconsider their processor options and migrate to the silicon-proven eSi-1600,” commented Ian Lankshear, Managing Director of EnSilica. “The 8051 has been a real work-horse of the electronics industry but it cannot compete with the eSi-1600 in terms of low power, silicon area and scalability. EnSilica's eSi-RISC family of soft processor cores for embedded systems is unique in being the only processor architecture scalable from 16 bits to 32 bits, enabling companies to secure their software investment.”

About the eSi-RISC processor family

eSi-RISC is a family of highly configurable and low-power soft processor cores for embedded systems that scales across a wide range of applications and uniquely supports both 16 and 32-bit configurations. The eSi-RISC family of processors has been extensively silicon proven in a number of ASIC and FPGA technologies.

The eSi-RISC family includes the eSi-1600 16-bit processor, eSi-3200 32-bit processor, eSI-3250 32 bit processor and eSi-3250sfp incorporating a single precision floating point processor. The processor cores also benefit from selectable Harvard/von Neumann memory and configurable cache options.  The highly pipelined nature of their design gives customers a technology-independent solution that is ideal for both FPGA applications and ASIC technologies.

About EnSilica

EnSilica is an established company with many years experience providing high quality IC design services to customers undertaking FPGA and ASIC designs. EnSilica has an impressive record of success working across many market segments with particular expertise in multimedia and communications applications. Customers range from start-ups to blue-chip companies. EnSilica can provide the full range of front-end IC design services, from System Level Design, RTL coding and Verification through to either a FPGA device or the physical design interface (synthesis, STA, DFT) for ASIC designs. EnSilica also offers a portfolio of IP, including a highly configurable 16/32 bit embedded processor called eSi-RISC and the eSi-Comms range of communications IP. For further information about EnSilica, visit http://www.ensilica.com.  eSi-RISC product information and downloads can be found at http://www.esi-risc.com.