IBM and LSI Logic Announce Technology Licensing Agreement; ASIC Leaders to Broaden Use of ZSP DSP Technology in Custom Chips.Business Editors EAST FISHKILL, N.Y. & MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2001 IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and LSI LSI: see integrated circuit. (Large Scale Integration) Between 3,000 and 100,000 transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, VLSI and ULSI. Logic Corporation (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :LSI) today announced a technology licensing agreement intended to accelerate the integration of high performance digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor designed specifically for digital signal processing, generally in real-time computing. Characteristics of typical Digital Signal Processors
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 ZSP Zrzeszenie Studentów Polskich ZSP Zone de Solidarite Prioritaire (Priority Solidarity Zone) ZSP Zero-Symmetric Pareto (statistical distribution) ZSP Zenworks Starter Pack (TM)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 integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for (ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. ) 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 Christine Elizabeth King is a British historian and university administrator. She is currently Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University.[1] , vice president of semiconductor products for IBM. "The addition of LSI Logic's DSP into our IBM Blue Logic(TM) 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 A CPU architecture that allows more than one instruction to be executed in one clock cycle. See pipeline processing. (architecture) superscalar - A superscalar architecture is a uniprocessor that can execute two or more scalar operations in parallel. , 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 See DSL. (communications, protocol) Digital Subscriber Line - (DSL, or Digital Subscriber Loop, xDSL - see below) A family of digital telecommunications protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and 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(TM). 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 dielectric (dī'ĭlĕk`trĭk), material that does not conduct electricity readily, i.e., an insulator (see insulation). A good dielectric should also have other properties: It must resist breakdown under high voltages; it should not 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(TM) 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. About IBM IBM Microelectronics is a key contributor to IBM's role as the world's premier information technology supplier. IBM Microelectronics develops, manufactures and markets state-of-the-art semiconductor and interconnect technologies, products and services. Its superior integrated solutions can be found in many of the world's best-known electronic brands. More information about IBM Microelectronics can be found at: www.chips.ibm.com. About LSI Logic Corporation Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI), is a leading supplier of communications chips for broadband, data networking, wireless and set-top box The cable TV box that sits on "top" of the TV "set," although it is often located several feet away in an equipment rack. The set-top box descrambles the premium channels and provides a tuner for the higher cable numbers that very old TVs did not support. applications. In addition, the company provides chips and boards for products that comprise the Internet infrastructure, and supplies storage network solutions for the enterprise. LSI Logic is headquartered at 1551 McCarthy Boulevard, Milpitas, CA 95035, 408-433-8000, www.lsilogic.com. More information about the ZSP architecture can be found by visiting www.zsp.com. IBM, IBM Microelectronics, IBM Blue Logic and CoreConnect are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. The LSI Logic logo design is a registered trademark, and ZSP is a trademark of LSI Logic Corporation. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion