IBM AND LSI LOGIC ANNOUNCE TECHNOLOGY LICENSING AGREEMENT.

IBM and LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE:LSI) have announced a technology licensing agreement intended to accelerate the integration of high performance digital signal processor (DSP) capability into custom chips for next-generation networking equipment, wireless handsets, and other advanced communications products.

DSPs are commonly found in a broad spectrum of applications, including cell phones, DVD players and cable modems, but usually take the form of standalone chips. The ability to integrate the DSP along with other functions onto a single system-on-a-chip can help manufacturers reduce the size, cost and power consumption of these products.

Under this agreement, IBM has licensed LSI Logic's ZSP 400 digital signal processor (DSP) core and software development and design verification tools, expanding IBM's custom chip offerings and making the ZSP400 available from two of the leading application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) vendors.

"We're incorporating DSP technology into our complex custom chip offerings to support the move away from standalone components to integrated system-on-chip designs," said Christine King, vice president of semiconductor products for IBM. "The addition of LSI Logic's DSP into our IBM Blue Logic custom chip offerings, combined with our advanced semiconductor process technologies, greatly enhances our ability to offer a comprehensive suite of ASIC solutions."

LSI Logic's ZSP400 is a state-of-the-art, four-way superscalar, high-performance dual-MAC (multiply-accumulate) DSP developed in a fully synthesizable, five-stage pipeline design that is easily migrated to different manufacturing processes. The architecture has been optimized to make it easy to program, thereby improving programmer productivity and time-to-market.

"IBM's decision to license LSI Logic's DSP core further demonstrates growing industry acceptance of LSI Logic's ZSP technology and open architecture strategy, which has already resulted in several high-volume customer engagements," said Giuseppe Staffaroni, LSI Logic executive vice president of Broadband Communications. "IBM is the latest licensee of our digital signal processor technology. The availability of ZSP as a high performance open architecture is being seen as good news to both hardware and software vendors designing products for high-growth communications markets, including wireless, voice over networks, digital subscriber lines and cable modems."

IBM intends to integrate the ZSP core into its Blue Logic ASIC library and modify it to work with the company's open on-chip bus architecture called CoreConnect. CoreConnect enables customers to quickly design customized chips using a broad, industry-wide library of verified cores that are ready for rapid assimilation into chip designs.

IBM intends to first make the ZSP400 core available to customers as part of its advanced Blue Logic Cu-11 ASIC design system, which is designed to enable custom chips for emerging communications and consumer applications, such as wireless infrastructure, handheld devices, and Voice over IP. ASICs designed with the Cu-11 template will be manufactured with IBM's 0.13-micron process technology, using copper wiring and low-k dielectric insulation. IBM plans to make the ZSP400 core available to its Cu-11 customers in the second half of 2001.

LSI Logic announced the availability of its ZSP digital signal processor architecture and licensing strategy in 1999. The open architecture encompasses a family of embeddable DSP cores for customers requiring system-on-a-chip solutions in the high-growth global communications market. LSI Logic's ZSP architecture and Solution Partners program is intended to provide a complete suite of solutions to customers, ranging from the low-power wireless handset market to high-end applications, such as voice-over-broadband-networks.