NEC Electronics Announces SoCLite, an Embedded ARM7 Gate Array SoC

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- NEC Electronics Inc. today announced U.S. availability of its new System-on-a-Chip Lite (SoCLite) gate array family and development boards. SoCLite comprises an embedded ARM7 microcontroller core, 190,000 usable logic gates, peripherals and memory that have all been tested and verified. The new offering provides users with an embedded microcontroller with low, non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs and short development times.

Unlike traditional standard-cell application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) targeted at very high volume customers, SoCLite is targeted at customers using 30,000 to 200,000 units per year in a wide variety of applications. With SoCLite, microcontroller designers are finally offered an easy-to-use solution. Using the industry-standard 32-bit ARM7 microcontroller as part of a gate array provides engineers the ability to rapidly develop a single-chip ASIC.

``SoCLite is a fast-turnaround SoC option that is designed for flexibility,'' said David Lamar, senior marketing manager of NEC Electronics' System LSI business unit. ``This solution equips our customers with a ready- to-use system so they have more time to customize their designs with application-specific functionality. In addition, design risk is reduced because engineers can use proven silicon, greatly reducing design risk and speeding time to market.''

``With SoCLite, NEC is making a significant offering to the embedded market, giving developers of medium-volume applications a route to a highly-integrated, low-power SoC solution,'' said Reynette Au, vice president of corporate marketing with ARM. ``By combining the industry-proven ARM7TDMI® core and ARM® AMBA(TM) interconnect with an area of gate array for customer designs, this new NEC solution will provide designers with a flexible option to get complex products to market quickly.''

NEC Corporation is the world's largest gate array supplier with a 22 percent market share.(1) This leadership position enables the company to provide customers with lower costs and shorter prototyping turnaround times. Now, with SoCLite, designers no longer have to worry about attaching all of the pieces of a microcontroller together. They can start with a guaranteed, working microcontroller and focus on their real task of designing the application logic within SoCLite.

SoCLite consists of two building blocks. One block contains the ARM7TDMI microcontroller, peripherals and memory. The other block contains 190,000 raw logic gates that interface to the microcontroller AMBA Advanced Peripheral Bus (APB).

Development Support

To speed development, NEC Electronics is offering a development board that contains the SoCLite ASIC with an ARM7 microcontroller and a direct interface to a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). This enables designers to use readily available tools to prototype in silicon rather than via simulation. The FPGA can be reprogrammed until the user fully debugs the system. Connectors enable all SoCLite signals to be attached to other hardware in order to fully prototype the application. The SoCLite development board works with standard ARM development tools.

After board-level verification, SoCLite designs can be implemented in a single gate-array device with NEC's cost-effective 0.35-micron drawn ASIC technology.

Packaging, Pricing and Availability

NEC Electronics' SoCLite custom controller device is currently available in production volumes in a 256-pin plastic ball grid array (PBGA). Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) pricing is U.S. $17.50 per device in 30K units. The SoCLite development board is available for U.S. $5,050.00. Pricing and availability are subject to change without notice.

Please visit www.necel.com for detailed SoCLite information.

About NEC Electronics Inc.

NEC Electronics Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., is one of the leading developers, manufacturers and suppliers of semiconductor products in the United States. Committed to meeting customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements, the company offers solutions ranging from standard products, including electron components, to system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, as well as customized products for next-generation designs. NEC Electronics also offers customers the benefits of a local manufacturing facility in Roseville, Calif., and the global manufacturing capabilities of its parent company, NEC Corporation (Nasdaq: NIPNY). For more information about products offered by NEC Electronics Inc., please visit the NEC Electronics web site at http://www.necel.com .

NOTE: NEC Electronics Inc. is either a registered trademark or trademark of NEC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are property of their respective owners. ARM, ARM7TDMI and AMBA are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM7 is a trademark of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. ``ARM'' is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (London: ARM; Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM, INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; and ARM France SAS.

(1) Gartner Group, Dataquest; Final 2000 Worldwide ASIC Manufacturer Market Statistics, May 11, 2001

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