Implementation of the X Architecture enables higher performing, smaller devices for digital-media and home-entertainment applications
SAN DIEGO, Calif. and TOKYO, June 7, 2004 - Marking a significant milestone, the X Initiative, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) and Toshiba Corporation announced today that Toshiba has launched the industry's first commercial system-on-chip (SoC) devices built on the innovative X Architecture design-a new approach to large-scale integration that enables the production of smaller, faster chips. Toshiba's latest TC90400XBG chip validates the benefits of the X Architecture by delivering a powerful, compact and highly integrated solution for next generation digital video broadcast and multimedia home-entertainment applications.
The X Architecture represents a new way of orienting a chip's microscopic interconnect wires with the pervasive use of diagonal routes, in addition to traditional right-angle "Manhattan" routing. This innovative architecture results in chip designs with significantly fewer wires and less vias to connect the wiring layers in SoC devices. By enabling higher quality device performance metrics, the X Architecture will bring significant advantages to next-generation digital media and other advanced consumer applications. Toshiba and Cadence have collaborated on the development of the X Architecture and are co-sponsors of the X Initiative, a consortium of more than 40 leading companies dedicated to facilitating the commercial adoption of the X Architecture by preparing the design chain for volume production.
Toshiba's milestone chip, TC90400XBG, designed for integration in digital-media and home-entertainment applications, is fabricated with 130-nanometer process technology. Compared to equivalent Toshiba products with the conventional "Manhattan" design, the new chip implementing the X Architecture is approximately 11 percent faster in speed and 10 percent smaller in random logic area. Samples of the new chip will be available in November 2004 and mass production is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2005. Toshiba has already won its first customer for TC90400XBG: the chip will be integrated into digital TVs, initially in products for the European market.
Commenting on the importance of the milestone for both Toshiba and the X Initiative, Takashi Yoshimori, Technology Executive SoC-Design of Toshiba's Semiconductor Company, said, "By collaborating with Cadence and members of the X Initiative to develop the industry's first X-based SoC, Toshiba is responding to diversifying market demands for performance-enabling single-chip solutions that can result in faster and smaller chips when compared to conventional design methodologies. With the application of this state-of-the art design process, Toshiba will further leverage its leadership in the SoC market."
"Toshiba has played an integral role in advancing the commercial viability of the X Architecture, including the development of the first 90-nm functional test chip (announced last year at the CEATEC Exhibition in Japan)," said Aki Fujimura, X Initiative steering group member and CTO, new business incubation at Cadence. "We are delighted that this design architecture is clearly proving to be a very advantageous choice for leading design applications such as digital media technology. We see this as the next step toward production of the X Architecture as it paves the way toward broad commercial adoption by the global semiconductor industry."
About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation is a leader in the development and manufacture of electronic devices and components, information and communication systems, consumer products and power systems. The company's ability to integrate wide-ranging capabilities, from hardware to software and wide-ranging services, assure its position as an innovator in diverse fields and many businesses. In semiconductors, Toshiba continues to promote its leadership in the fast growing system-on-chip market and to build on its world-class position in NAND flash memories, analog devices and discrete devices. Toshiba has approximately 164,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over US$47 billion. Visit Toshiba's web site at www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.
About Cadence
Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design technologies and engineering services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics-based products. With approximately 4,800 employees and 2003 revenues of approximately $1.1 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its products and services is available at http://www.cadence.com.
About the X Architecture
The X Architecture, the first production-worthy approach to the pervasive use of diagonal interconnect, reduces the total interconnect, or wiring, on a chip by more than 20 percent and via-counts by more than 30 percent, resulting in simultaneous improvements in chip performance, power and cost. For the past 20 years, chip design has been primarily based on the de facto industry standard "Manhattan" architecture, named for its right-angle interconnects resembling a city-street grid. The X Architecture rotates the primary direction of the interconnect in the fourth and fifth metal layers by 45 degrees from a Manhattan architecture. The new architecture maintains compatibility with existing cell libraries, memory cells, compilers and IP cores by preserving the Manhattan geometry of metal layers one through three.
About the X Architecture Initiative
The X Initiative, a group of leading companies from throughout the semiconductor industry, is chartered with accelerating the availability and fabrication of the X Architecture, a revolutionary interconnect architecture based on the pervasive use of diagonal routing. The X Initiative's five-year mission is to provide an independent source of education about the X Architecture, to facilitate support and fabrication of the X Architecture through the semiconductor industry design chain, and to survey usage of the X Architecture to track its adoption. Representing leaders spanning the entire design-to-silicon supply chain, X Initiative members include: Applied Materials, Inc.; ARM; Artisan Components, Inc.; ASML Netherlands B.V.; Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; Canon U.S.A. Inc.; Dai Nippon Printing (DNP); DuPont Photomasks, Inc.; Etec Systems, Inc., an Applied Materials, Inc. company; GDA Technologies, Inc.; HPL Technologies, Inc.; Hoya Corporation; IN2FAB Technology Ltd.; Infineon Technologies AG; JEOL, Ltd.; KLA-Tencor Corporation; Leica Microsystems AG; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.; MicroArk Co. Ltd.; Monterey Design Systems, Inc.; Nikon Corporation; NuFlare Technology Inc.; PDF Solutions, Inc.; Photronics, Inc.; Prolific Inc.; RUBICAD Corporation; Sagantec; Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.; Silicon Logic Engineering, Inc.; SiliconMap, LLC.; Silicon Valley Research Inc.; STMicroelectronics; Sycon Design, Inc.; Tensilica, Inc.; Toppan Printing Co.; Toshiba Corporation; Trecenti Technologies, Inc.; TSMC; UMC; Virage Logic, Inc.; Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc.; and Zygo Corporation. Membership is open to all companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain. Materials can be found at www.xinitiative.org.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements (including, without limitation, information regarding semiconductor design, production and performance improvements resulting from the X Architecture, the compatibility of the X Architecture with current technology, the future success of X Architecture technology and the ability of certain of the X Initiative members to support the X Architecture) that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the results of X Initiative members and other events to differ materially from managements' current expectations. Actual results and events may differ materially due to a number of factors, including, among others: future strategic decisions made by the X Initiative members; failure of the X Architecture to enable the production of designs that are feasible and competitive with current designs or future alternatives; future strategic decisions made by X Initiative members or others that inhibit the development of the X Architecture; demand for advanced semiconductors that are developed using the X Architecture; cost feasibility of the production of semiconductors designed using the X Architecture; and the rapid pace of technological change in the semiconductor industry. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described in the most recent filings of the X Initiative members with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The X Initiative members, individually or collectively, assume no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this release.
