D&R Headline News (May 2010)

Headlines for Monday May. 31, 2010

Top Story

Cosmic Circuits announces silicon-proven 40nm Wireless Analog IP

Cosmic Circuits today announced the availability of a silicon-proven platform of mixed-signal IP cores in TSMC 40nm for wireless communications applications, resulting from its collaboration with TSMC.

• DiBcom to Launch DVB-T and ISDB-T Tuner-Demodulator SoCs for Cost-Effective TV Receivers

Headlines for Friday May. 28, 2010

• Dolphin Integration adds a Sample Rate Converter to its audio converter
• Chips&Media' HD Video Core Demonstrated in VIA’s new multimedia chipset.

Headlines for Thursday May. 27, 2010

Top Story

Rambus Acquires Uni-Pixel Display and Backlighting Intellectual Property

Uni-Pixel today announced that Rambus has acquired a portion of Uni-Pixel's IP portfolio relating to dynamic backlighting, field sequential color displays, and Time Multiplexed Optical Shutter (TMOS(TM)) display technology.

• eSilicon Expands In Asia Through Acquisition of Silicon Design Solutions
• TSMC Announces 0.18-Micron Automotive Grade Embedded Flash IP
• STMicroelectronics Expands its SPEAr Microprocessor Family for High-Performance Applications
• CEVA, Inc. Announces Expansion of Existing Stock Repurchase Program
• Android 2.2 Demonstrates Significant Investment in Support of the ARM Architecture
• Trident Microsystems Licenses CEVA's DSP for Set-Top Box and DTV Product Lines
• ITC Extends Target Date of Final Determination in Rambus Matter Regarding NVIDIA Products
• Digital Imaging Core Now Available for Integration From DarbeeVision
• Virage Logic Appoints Industry Executive to Board of Directors
• XYALIS Brings Cost Reduction To Mask Design
• TSMC and Co-Development Partners Mentor and Synopsys Donate iDRC to Si2

Headlines for Wednesday May. 26, 2010

Top Story

Analysts: 450-mm will happen, eventually

The probability that the semiconductor industry will one day use 450-mm silicon wafers in manufacturing has increased significantly, though the chance of achieving volume production by the original target date of 2012 is remote, according to a new report by analysts at Semico Research.

• Wind River to Launch Updated Simics Virtual Systems Development Solution
• SMIC, TI still in talks about fab takeover
• ClariPhy Announces $24 Million Investment, New Strategic Alliances
• Sapiennt Systems: Powerful Software for IC Industry Decision Makers

Headlines for Tuesday May. 25, 2010

Top Story

STMicroelectronics Announces 32nm Design Platform for Next-Generation System-on-Chip ICs for Networking Applications

STMicroelectronics today announced full availability of a 32-nm technology platform for the design and development of leading-edge ASICs for networking applications. Central to the new 32nm SoC design platform, which implements ST's 32LPH (Low-Power High-performance) process technology, is the industry's first Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) IP available in 32nm 'bulk' silicon.

• Duolog's Socrates Chip Integration Hub Supports EDA360 Vision
• Richtek Licenses Virage Logic's AEON(R) MTP Family of NVM IP for Its Advanced Analog and Power Management Products
• Virage Logic Expands Suite of Certified, Fully Optimized Audio Codecs, Underscoring Its Investment in ARC(R) Processors
• TowerJazz to Provide ARM Low Power Libraries for 0.13 SiGe BiCMOS and RF CMOS Platforms
• CAST Reference Design System Simplifies H.264 Video Compression Evaluation and Analysis
• Menta Unveils eFPGA Creator, Industry's First Development Suite to Create Customizable Programmable Logic Architecture
• VeriSilicon Licenses Sorenson Spark Video Decoder for Inclusion in Libraries, Core Chipset for Mobile Devices
• Tensilica and Iberium Partner for Solutions for DTV Market
• Imagination Technologies licenses communications and graphics processor core to SiS
• SpringSoft's Laker Layout Supports TSMC 40-nm Technology with Interoperable Process Design Kit
• Fresco Logic Unveils 2-port USB 3.0 Host Controller Chip
• ITC Extends Target Date of Final Determination in Rambus Matter Regarding NVIDIA Products
• ARM Physical IP Production Characterization System Utilizes Magma SiliconSmart Software

Headlines for Monday May. 24, 2010

Top Story

Cadence and IBM Team to Develop Leading-Edge IP

Cadence Design today announced a joint development agreement with IBM to create high-performance integration-optimized IP. Under the agreement, the companies will develop DDR PHYs, memory controllers, and protocols such as PCIe and Ethernet under 32-nanometer silicon-on-insulator.

• Clients to become more like servers, says ARM's CTO
• Rapid Bridge Enters into Distribution Agreement with Cadence
• Imperas Eases Embedded Software Development With Mentor Graphics Nucleus RTOS and EDGE Development Tools
• Wolfson Selects SiliconGate to Supply Power Management IP for its Next Generation of High-Performance Products
• SMIC and Virage Logic Expand Partnership to Offer Virage Logic's IP on SMIC's 65nm LL Process
• Evatronix Introduces an Ultra-fast Intel 80C251 Compatible Microcontroller IP Core
• Kilopass Files Action Against Key Sidense Patent at United States Patent and Trademark Office
• Innopower Technology Corp. Announces the Availability of USB 3.0 Physical Layer (PHY) IP Which Has Passed USB-IF SuperSpeed Certification, through Customers' Solutions
• Analysis: What's next for UMC?
• Sidense To Prove Kilopass Patent Invalid
• Chips&Media to Present the Latest Video Solutions at SoCIP2010 Symposium in Shanghai, Beijing

Headlines for Friday May. 21, 2010

Top Story

Videantis Announces Support for WebM Project and VP8 Codec

videantis today announced that the WebM project and the open source VP8 video codec released by Google, Inc., will be supported on the videantis v-MPx programmable processor platform.

• Cosmic Circuits targets mixed-signal IP cores for SOC designs in China

Headlines for Thursday May. 20, 2010

Top Story

CEO spotlights on IP biz as Synopsys tops estimates

EDA and IP vendor Synopsys reported revenue gains on a sequential and year-over-year basis for the three months ended April 30, as the company beat consensus analyst expectations for revenue and profit for the period.

• Mentor Graphics Announces New FPGA Synthesis Innovation in Precision Synthesis 2010a Release
• CSR wireless audio platform chosen by LG Electronics for ultra-slim headset and new car speakerphone design
• IPextreme to Provide ColdFire IP Cores to Tabula Customers as Standard 32-Bit Processor for Tabula ABAX 3PLDs
• Renesas Electronics Collaborates with AMD to Accelerate Promotion of USB 3.0 Standard
• Rohde & Schwarz and Blue Wonder Communications to jointly test LTE-FDD and TD-LTE functionality
• Assisting the Customer to Get the Certification of USB 3.0 Host Controller, Faraday Sets A Great Milestone for Its and USB 3.0's Market Expansion in the Industry
• Movidius secures Series B investment to fuel growth in mobile video
• Chip makers back Google's open source codec
• Synopsys Posts Financial Results for Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2010

Headlines for Wednesday May. 19, 2010

Top Story

SMSC Qualifies Kilopass Non-Volatile Memory for Rigorous TrueAuto Process

Kilopass and SMSC today announced that Kilopass’ XPM™ NVM has passed SMSC’s TrueAuto automotive quality process, and will be embedded in many of SMSC’s TrueAuto ICs.

• Icera Secures $45M Financing To Accelerate Growth
• MIPS Technologies Announces Support for WebM Project
• VeriSilicon Announces Support for WebM on ZSP Digital Signal Processor Cores and SoC Platforms
• Elliptic Technologies First Past the Post with Upgraded NIST Validation for Storage Security
• First Silicon Success With LPDDR2 SDRAM Controller IP For High-Performance, Low-Power SoC
• Forte Unveils Cynthesizer Ultra, Next-Generation High-level Synthesis
• Ridgetop Group's SJ BIST Solder Joint Fault Monitor to be Flight-Tested by NASA Research Center
• InterDigital and Capital Semiconductor Enter into 3G Technology Transfer Agreement
• Analogix announces availability of DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2 5.4Gbps products
• Analyst: Xilinx at risk of double ordering

Headlines for Tuesday May. 18, 2010

Top Story

MoSys and PLDA Partner to Deliver Complete PCI Express 2.0 and 3.0 IP Solutions

MoSys and PLDA have partnered to deliver complete PCI Express 2.0 and 3.0 PHY and controller IP solutions. The first integrated offering will combine MoSys' PCI Express 2.0 PHY with PLDA's XpressRich2 controller. The companies are also working together to provide an integrated PCI Express 3.0 solution

• Imagination Technologies licenses high-performance multi-processor graphics processor core to Texas Instruments
• Rohm Licenses ARM Cortex-M0 Processor
• Wipro Technologies Selects Lattice MachXO PLDs for New Server Platforms
• Dell, IBM give thumbs up to ARM servers
• Alizem releases new COTS Motor Control IP product for Pump and Fan applications

Headlines for Monday May. 17, 2010

Top Story

Kilopass Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Sidense

Kilopass Technology announced today it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sidense Corp. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on May 14, 2010, for infringement of Kilopass’ 1T antifuse technology.

• Report: Infineon talks to Intel over sale of wireless unit
• Dolphin Integration complements their portfolio of ROM with a shrinked variant of Cassiopeia for the 152 nm process
• Actel Releases New Development Kit Targeted at System Designers in Need of ARINC 429 Development Platform
• Sidense Corp. Reacts to Kilopass Allegations
• Ridgetop Group Announces Solution Developed for Intermittency Detection in Electronic Components
• Magma's Titan Mixed-Signal Platform Supports TSMC's 65- and 40-nm Interoperable Process Design Kits (iPDKs)

Headlines for Friday May. 14, 2010

• eASIC Nextreme Used for Hardware Validation of Microsoft RemoteFX Technology

Headlines for Thursday May. 13, 2010

Top Story

Cadence to Acquire Denali

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, and Denali Software, Inc., a leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property (IP), today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Cadence will acquire Denali for $315 million in cash.

• Mixel's SerDes IP Licensed by Viimagic, a Thomson Spin-Off
• Synopsys Collaborates with SMIC to Deliver USB Logo-Certified DesignWare USB 2.0 nanoPHY in SMIC's 65 Nanometer LL Process Technology
• CAST SpeedView JPEG Encoder Core in Samsung Mobile Imaging Solutions
• Xilinx and Hitachi Information & Communication Engineering Announce New Virtex-6 FPGA-Based LogicBench Series Platform for System-Level Design Verification in Japan

Headlines for Wednesday May. 12, 2010

Top Story

Intel CEO says the ARM way is no way to make money

Intel Corp. sees no threat to its business from ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) and has no intention in participating in any alternative processor architectures to its own, according to CEO Paul Otellini.

• Scanimetrics Now Offering MOSAID HLNAND Flash Memory Chip and Module
• Actel's New Core1553 Development Kit Gives Access to MIL-STD-1553B Bus Evaluation System Based on Fusion Mixed Signal FPGAs
• Arteris expands global distribution and support to address growing demand for on-chip interconnect solutions
• CAST Offers the First 12-bit JPEG Extended Sequential, DICOM-Compatible IP Core
• U.S. Air Force Awards Ridgetop Group Contract to Develop Innovative Semiconductor Foundry Qualification System
• Xilinx and Tokyo Electron Device Offers V-by-One HS Video Interface Support for Using Spartan-6 FPGAs in Consumer Video Applications
• ClioSoft SOS Hardware Configuration Management Platform Selected by Dongbu HiTek

Headlines for Tuesday May. 11, 2010

Top Story

Marvell plans 40-nm ARM server processors

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. aims to supply silicon for ARM-based servers with 40-nm multicore processors it will ship this year and is working with multiple partners including one that hopes to port a server version of Microsoft Windows to ARM.

• Sidense Raises $5 million in Venture Capital to Expand Product Development
• Texas Instruments launches DaVinci(TM) DMVA2 video processor, the first megapixel IP camera SoC with smart analytics
• SMIC Reports Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2010
• Ultra High-Performance MIPS64 Architecture Powers Cavium Networks' New Multi-Core Processors
• Lattice Semiconductor Plans SRIO Interoperability With Cavium Networks' OCTEON II Processors
• Actel Continues to Ease Embedded Design with Extensive Library of IP
• OCP-IP Delivers IEEE1685 OCP Vendor Extensions
• Magma's Titan Supports IPL 1.0 Standard for Interoperable Process Design Kits
• Software Developers Get New High Performance Computing C-to-FPGA Tools

Headlines for Monday May. 10, 2010

Top Story

VeriSilicon Expands SoC Platform with On2 Technologies Finland's Silicon Proven Video Solutions

VeriSilicon and On2 Finland today announced a wide-ranging partnership that adds the multi-format video encode/decode solutions from On2 Finland to VeriSilicon's expanding, system level star IP portfolio. The agreement gives VeriSilicon access to On2 Finland’s silicon proven IP, with support for a variety of video formats such as Real Video (RV), Divx, VP6, VP7, VP8 and AVS, for customer SoC designs targeting mobile and home entertainment consumer applications with varied market requirements.

• TSMC April 2010 Sales Report
• Numetrics and PRTM Announce Partnership and Launch New Solution to Increase Semiconductor R&D Productivity
• Open-Silicon Reaches 50 Million SoC Chips
• Magma Announces SiliconSmart ACE Memory Characterization -- Embedded FineSim Pro Enables Most Accurate Characterization of Timing, Power and Noise Models
• Apache Introduces PathFinder, the Industry's First Full-chip ESD Physical Integrity Solution
• Magillem Joins ARM Connected Community

Headlines for Friday May. 07, 2010

Top Story

Analysis gives first look inside Apple's A4 processor

An analysis by UBM TechInsights shows the Apple A4 processor in the iPad is a single-core ARM Cortex A8 made by Samsung.

• GlobalFoundries hints at further expansion plans
• Dolphin Integration concentrates on cost-cutting with the Standard Cell Library HD-BTF for 65 nm processes
• Mindspeed Extends Transcede Family with Highly Integrated Processors for Small Cell 3G/4G/LTE Base Stations
• STMicroelectronics Completes the Sale of Numonyx to Micron Technology

Headlines for Thursday May. 06, 2010

Top Story

Who is MIPS' mystery licensee?

IP house MIPS Technologies Inc. recently revealed that it had landed a major cellular baseband/application processor licensee based in Asia.

• Mentor Graphics Veloce Delivers 400X Acceleration for OVM Driven Verification
• Analyst: UMC seeks R&D partnership
• Zocalo Tech Introduces Assertion-Based Verification Capabilities to Improve IP and Electronic Design Quality
• WiLAN Reports First Quarter 2010 Financial Results
• Evatronix Introduces a 65C02 Chip Compatible Microprocessor IP Core
• GigOptix Announces Low Risk Component Obsolescence Replacement Program
• Dialog Semiconductor Licenses NXP's CoolFlux DSP and LifeVibes Software for Smartphones and Next Generation Convergent Portable Devices
• NextOp Announces BugScope Assertion Synthesis for Progressive, Targeted Verification
• NextOp Software Debuts with Focus on Assertion-Based Verification
• eASIC eTools 8.1 Design Suite Reduces Design Time by 40%
• Virage Logic Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2010 Results
• BlueAnt license apt-X

Headlines for Wednesday May. 05, 2010

Top Story

Synopsys Unveils Ethernet Controller IP With New Audio Video Bridging Feature

Synopsys today announced the immediate availability of the DesignWare® Ethernet Quality-of-Service (QoS) Controller IP which implements the new IEEE specifications for audio video bridging (AVB) features.

• Cadence Accelerates SoC Realization, Reduces Costs With New Open Integration Platform
• MindTree to Unveil the Largest Portfolio of "Ready-to-Brand" Video Surveillance Solutions at IFSEC 2010
• eMemory caters to market needs and offers a complete set of Multiple-Times-Programmable (MTP) Embedded Non-Volatile Memory solutions

Headlines for Tuesday May. 04, 2010

Top Story

Chipset Integration Needed Before SuperSpeed USB Takes Off, Says In-Stat

SuperSpeed USB, which offers a tenfold bandwidth improvement over high-speed USB, will grow to just under 30 percent of the USB interface technology market by 2014, according to In-Stat forecasts. The success of SuperSpeed USB will be limited initially, however.

• Vivante Adopts Carbon Design Systems' System-Level Modeling, IP Deployment Tools
• MagnaChip to Offer Cost Competitive 0.18um Embedded EEPROM Technology
• Accent Announces Company Strategic Focus to Speed Adoption of Smart Grid Devices
• Imagination Technologies licenses high-performance multi-processor graphics processor core to Renesas Electronics

Headlines for Monday May. 03, 2010

Top Story

Synopsys Launches Industry's First MIPI DigRF v4 IP

Synopsys today announced the immediate availability of the DesignWare® MIPI® 4G DigRF(SM) Master Controller IP. By complementing its current silicon-proven DesignWare MIPI 3G DigRF Controller and PHY IP, Synopsys becomes the first vendor to offer a comprehensive IP portfolio for both the MIPI DigRF v3 and v4 standards.

• Boosted by Asian licensee, MIPS elbows ARM
• Mobileye(R) Licenses MIPS32(R) 1004K(TM) Coherent Processing System for Advanced Driver Assistance SoCs
• Xilinx ISE Design Suite 12 Enables Up to 30% Dynamic Power Reduction with Intelligent Clock-Gating Technology
• Microtronix introduces Scatter Gather DMA Engine for Altera PCIe Hard IP Cores
• Semiconductor Industry Association Reports March Chip Sales Grew by 4.6 Percent Month-on-Month
• Sierra Wireless licenses Arasan Chip System's SDIO Host controller IP core