STMicroelectronics Announces New x86 System-on-Chip devices for Information Appliance, Consumer, Automotive, Data Communications and Industrial Applications.

Business & Technology Editors

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 2000

0.25u process technology of new STPC devices enables

higher clock speed and lower power consumption

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), the pioneer of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology, has added three new devices to its STPC family of x86 PC-compatible SoC devices that deliver cost-effective PC compatibility in a single low-cost chip.

The STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and the STPC Elite are fabricated in ST's 0.25u technology, thereby offering an extremely high level of integration based on the x86 architecture. All three devices contain a comprehensive array of standard functions, including ISA and PCI controllers, an IDE port, an SDRAM memory controller and a JTAG port. The STPC Consumer-II and STPC Atlas also include high performance graphics and video functions, while the STPC Elite includes a 16-line general purpose I/O block. Additionally the STPC Atlas incorporates the standard I/O functions normally found in a "Super I/O" chip, namely PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse controllers, two UARTs and a parallel port, as well as a dual port USB host hub and a PCMCIA controller.

The migration to 0.25u technology allows the clock speed to be increased to up to 133MHz while reducing power consumption at 133MHz to only 2.5W (STPC Consumer-II and STPC Atlas) and 1.5W (STPC Elite), at 100% CPU utilization with all peripherals exercised.

All of the new devices support up to 128MBytes of synchronous DRAM, using 16, 64 or 128Mbit generation SDRAMs and provide all of the functions required to build Information and Internet appliances, thin-client terminals, industrial controllers, communications systems and similar high volume x86-based applications on a single chip. This not only minimizes the system cost and time-to-market but also eliminates the compatibility and reliability problems that are often encountered when equipment makers attempt to combine separate subsystems. Device and board testing is further facilitated by the JTAG port.

At the heart of the STPC products is an advanced 64-bit, 133MHz processor block. This contains a 64-bit SDRAM controller, a bus mastering EIDE controller and a high speed PCI local bus controller. The VGA/SVGA-compatible graphics accelerator and sophisticated video input port and video pipeline of the STPC Consumer-II and STPC Atlas allow the easy combination of video and graphics windows, while the PAL/NTSC encoder and flicker filter of the STPC Consumer-II make this device ideal for low cost appliances using a TV as the display medium. The digital TFT LCD panel interface of the STPC Atlas make this part ideal for Web-pad, Web-phone, POS, Internet and Thin-client terminals. The addition of a hardware anti-aliasing, line drawing and polygon filling engine allow the STPC Atlas to display very high quality images, making it particularly suitable for automotive navigation and entertainment applications.

"Magneti-Marelli has worked with ST to optimize the specification of the graphics engine of the STPC Atlas for moving map displays with the highest quality and already has working prototype systems. We have demonstrated the system at the Paris `Mondial de l ' Automobile' at the end of September and will be supplying this system integrating the STPC Atlas to major European car manufacturers for production start-up in 2001," said Michel Rentier, Multimedia Systems Architect, Magneti Marelli SA.

All three devices offer short time-to-market as they are fully PC-compatible, i.e. they will run all standard PC programs and operating systems. The x86 platform is particularly attractive for information appliances as it offers fast time-to-market, guaranteed support of all the latest browser and plug-in standards, and the ability to run high performance RTOS, Linux and Windows CE, Windows 9x, Windows NT Embedded 4.0 and Windows 2000 and application programs, as well as full compatibility with the large installed based of x86 development tools.

The STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite include a high performance 64-bit synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) controller that supports data transfer rates up to 720MBytes/sec. Coupled with the 64-bit internal bus architecture, this allows the performance of STPC based products to easily surpass that of most conventional implementations of x86 embedded systems. A tightly coupled Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) is employed, so the same memory array is used for the CPU main memory and for the graphics frame buffer, leading to smaller system memory requirements.

The low cost and high performance of the STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite make them ideal for information and internet appliances such as web boxes, web enabled TVs, server appliances and information kiosks, as well as a many other applications where cost-effective PC functionality is required, ranging from gaming machines and security equipment to medical instrumentation and POS terminals.

All three devices are packaged in low cost plastic BGA packages. Samples of the STPC Consumer II and STPC Elite will be available in November 2000, with volume production scheduled for December 2000, with the STPC Atlas following two months later. Pricing is set at less than $38 for the STPC Atlas, less than $33 for the STPC Consumer-II and less than $26 for the STPC Elite (10,000 unit quantity).

"The STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite are integrated and cost-effective solutions targeting the Internet appliance market. They deliver consumer features normally associated with more complex and costly multi-chip designs and are capable platforms on which to run Windows CE 3.0 or Windows NT Embedded 4.0," stated Mark Svancarek, Lead Program Manager, Embedded and Appliance Platforms Group at Microsoft Corp.

"The STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite deliver to the embedded market three outstanding processors that deliver both PC compatibility and in the case of the STPC Consumer-II, great TV quality output," stated Steve Jones, President and CTO of General Software, Inc. "STMicroelectronics' selection of our Embedded BIOS(tm) firmware for the STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite ensures potential developers an unprecedented ease of implementation and quicker time-to-market for end applications."

"We are excited to provide full tool chain support on the new STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite. We feel that they offer a good solution for applications that rely on increasing functionality and in the case of the STPC Consumer-II and STPC Atlas, superior display capabilities that out-perform many high-end systems," said Martin A. Hermann, Managing Director, CAD-UL AG.

"The arrival of the STPC Atlas, STPC Consumer-II and STPC Elite fits nicely into the QNX operating system and application portfolio," said Linda Campbell, vice president of strategic alliances at QNX. "Together, QNX's fault-tolerant OS technology and STPC's highly integrated design will fuel the growing acceptance of the x86 architecture in Web appliances, server appliances, car-entertainment and navigation systems, information kiosks, in-flight entertainment systems, security, industrial control systems, and network appliances, to name a few."

"Lineo sees great value in STMicroelectronics STPC platform for a number of reasons. The fact that this platform is PC compatible means that it can leverage a great deal of existing code. The platform adheres to standard interfaces, which cuts down on the custom work necessary to get up and running on the STPC, thereby reducing time-to-market. Finally, the familiarity and expertise with the x86 architecture considerably enhances the ST-Lineo joint offering," said Bryan Sparks, Founder and CEO of Lineo.

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics (formerly SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics) is a global independent semiconductor company, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on the ParisBourse and on the Milan Stock Exchange. The Company designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in a wide variety of microelectronic applications, including telecommunications systems, computer systems, consumer products, automotive products and industrial automation and control systems. In 1999, the Company's net revenues were $5.056 billion and net earnings were $547 million. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.