PLDA and GUC Delivers Fully Integrated PCI Express Gen 4 Solution for TSMC's 16nm FinFET Plus Process

San Jose, CA – April 7, 2015 – PLDA, the industry leader in PCI Express® controller IP solutions has partnered with GUC, the Flexible ASIC Leader™, to create the fully-integrated complete PCIe Gen 4 solution for TSMC’s 16nm FinFET Plus (16FF+) process. The new PCIe Gen 4 IP can be licensed immediately by system-on-a-chip (SoC) and system companies, enabling solutions that satisfy the throughput, latency and power demands of PCIe 4.0 applications. In addition to the IP, a test chip is now available, helping designers overcome the high complexity of designing a PCIe 4.0 solution in TSMC 16FF+. This new solution for Gen 4 expands the relationship between the long-time partners, PLDA and GUC to the latest PCI Express generation, and adds another industry first to their family of proven solutions.

“We are proud to announce the PCIe 4.0 complete solution on TSMC 16FF+ with our long-time partner GUC. As a company, we are totally focused on PCI Express, and as a result we are able to bring special advantages to our customers by deploying this technology early in a form that is extremely robust and comprehensively verified. Eagerly awaited by storage, data center, computing and networking companies, PCIe 4.0 now has a test chip, lowering risks for designers and partners planning projects that require a leading edge PCIe solution,” said Stephane Hauradou, co-founder of PLDA.

“The GUC PHY IP is designed for use in any networking or high-end computing SoC,” said Dr. Chen-Yang Pan, Senior Director of Analog/Mixed-Signal IC Design at GUC. “Customers will be getting a cost-effective and extremely low-power solution that is designed to meet the needs of today’s high-speed interconnect designs coupled with the value that our partner PLDA brings: its expertise, the quality of its product support and great flexibility for the final user.”

PLDA’s XpressRICH4 Controller supports all PCIe configurations from PCIe 1.1 x1 to PCIe 4.0 x16, including Endpoint, Root Port, Dual-mode and Switch and is optimized for low power, high-throughput, low latency, and small area. XpressRICH4 supports 8-, 16-, 32-and 64-bit PIPE and PIE-8 interfaces, enabling easy integration with PCS layers from multiple PHY vendors and includes advanced features for power management, error management, virtualization (SRIOV) and data protection. It is also available as XpressRICH4-AXI with industry-standard AMBA AXI4 interface, full AXI interconnect and inbuilt DMA.

For more information about the XpressRICH4 Controller, see the product page (www.plda.com).

The PCIe-4 EMSplus PHY IP from GUC is fully compatible with PCI Express Gen 1/2/3/4 signaling rates, in addition to USB3.1, 10G-KR and SATA/SAS 3.0 Built upon GUC’s proven adaptive equalization architecture and advanced clock recovery algorithm, the PHY achieves very low bit error rates at all data rates and channels. With independent data rate operation per lane, the PHY supports flexible bifurcation and link aggregation. The PHY also supports newer PCIe features such as Separate Refclk Independent SSC (SRIS) for cabled systems, and L1 substates for minimal power consumption during idle state.

For more information about the EMSplus PHY, see the GUC website (www.guc-asic.com).

Visit the partners at TSMC Symposium San Jose on 7 April 2015 – PLDA in Booth #411, GUC in Booth 102.

Availability

The complete PCI Express Gen4 solution is available now from PLDA and GUC. A test chip with PLDA’s PCIe 4.0 controller and GUC’s PCIe 4.0 PHY IP is available for selected customers.

About PLDA
PLDA has been successfully delivering PCI and PCI Express IP for more than 18 years. With over 5,800 licenses, PLDA has establish a vast customer base and the world’s broadest PCIe ecosystem. PLDA has maintained its leadership over four generations of PCI Express specifications, enabling customers to reduce risk and accelerate time to market for their ASIC and FPGA based designs. PLDA provides a complete PCIe solution with its IP cores, FPGA boards for ASIC prototyping, PCIe BFM/testbench, PCIe drivers and APIs. PLDA is a global company with offices in North America (San Jose, California) and Europe (France, Italy, Bulgaria).

About GUC
GLOBAL UNICHIP CORP. (GUC) is the Flexible ASIC Leader^TM that provides the semiconductor industry with leading IC implementation and SoC manufacturing services. Based in Hsin-chu Taiwan, GUC has developed a global reputation with a presence in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, and North America. GUC is publicly traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under the symbol 3443. For more information, visit www.guc-asic.com.