TUNDRA TSI577 SWITCH OFFERS MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE.

Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (TSX:TUN), Ottawa, a leader in System Interconnect, has announced the Tundra Tsi577(TM) Serial RapidIO(R) Switch. By minimizing power consumption and package size, this Switch now offers customers the powerful functionality of RapidIO while reducing overall design cost.

Wireless and video infrastructure OEM's with space constrained, cost sensitive designs, can take advantage of Tundra's proven RapidIO Switches, including; scalability, performance, hardware multicast, and low latency, in a small 21x21mm package.

"Wireless and video infrastructure OEM's can now leverage a smaller footprint and cost reduced RapidIO Switch using the Tsi577. Tundra's industry-leading RapidIO Switches are the de facto standard for all next generation wireless platforms, with 9 out of 10 of the world's leading wireless OEM's now using Tundra's RapidIO solutions," said Tracy Richardson, Vice President Marketing, Tundra Semiconductor. "The Tsi577 leverages the performance and quality features of our proven RapidIO product line, and addresses specific customer requirements for a high performance, small footprint RapidIO Switch, for cost sensitive, space constrained designs."

Tundra's market leading RapidIO Switches connect high performance processors required to allow next generation wireless platforms to manage large volumes of voice and data traffic at high speeds while ensuring transmission integrity. Tundra's world-class engineering and customer support assist OEM design teams in bringing to market the world's highest performance wireless systems.

"Texas Instruments' digital signal processors (DSP's) optimized for wireless infrastructure have been the processors of choice for WiMAX, 3G, LTE, and WCDMA applications," said Kathy Brown, general manager of TI's wireless infrastructure business. "Our high-performance multi-core TMS320TCI6487/88's are enabling wireless base station OEMs to support multiple air interfaces while keeping their power budgets low. Aggregating multiple TI DSP's is a critical component for high bandwidth wireless baseband systems and the Tsi577 enables clustering of multiple TI DSP's in these systems."

"RapidIO is the interconnect of choice for next generation wireless infrastructure platforms. Tundra's optimized Tsi577 RapidIO Switch reduces interconnect footprint and cost, enabling System OEMs to build competitive, world-leading wireless, video, military and embedded platforms. The Tsi577 Switch is cost competitive per lane with PCI Express Switches and, due to the protocol efficiency of RapidIO, the Tsi577 also transmits more payload data per Gigabit," said Tom Cox, Executive Director, RapidIO Trade Association.

The new Tsi577 Switch is a small form factor RapidIO Switch compliant with the RapidIO v1.3 specification. Tundra's new Switch offers designers the industry's lowest cut-through latency, of 110 nanoseconds, and ensures maximum performance for real time voice, video and data traffic in next generation wireless platforms. Designers can rely on the proven interoperability of the Tsi57x product line and socket compatibility of the Tsi577 with the Tsi576(TM).

The Tundra Tsi577 Features:

- Small form factor 21x21 v1.3 RapidIO Switch with 16x1 or 4x4 RapidIO for processor aggregation and backplane connectivity with 40 Gbps of non-blocking bandwidth - Footprint compatible with Tsi576(TM) - Low 100 mW per port power for both long and short reach lengths - Low 110 ns cut through latency - High performance hardware multicast - Industry-leading interoperability with the Tsi57x product family

Availability and Design Support Tools

The Tundra Tsi577 Switch is sampling now. To order, please contact [e-mail].

About Tundra RapidIO(R) Switches

Tundra switches provide chip-to-chip interconnect between RapidIO end-points and can replace existing proprietary backplane fabrics for board-to-board interconnect. As a founding member of the RapidIO Trade Association and long-time Steering Committee member, Tundra continues to provide leadership in the development of the RapidIO standard and was the first semiconductor vendor to bring Parallel and Serial RapidIO switches to market. RapidIO is the leading serial interconnect standard for embedded systems and is supported by industry leaders such as, Alcatel- Lucent Technologies, AMCC, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, and Freescale Semiconductor. The Tundra family of RapidIO switches includes the Tsi620(TM), Tsi578(TM), Tsi577(TM), Tsi576(TM), Tsi574(TM), Tsi572(TM), Tsi568A(TM), and Tsi564A(TM).

About Tundra

Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (TSX:TUN) supplies the world's leading communications, computing and storage companies with System Interconnect products and design services backed by world-class customer service and technical support. Tundra's track record of product leadership includes over a decade of bridges and switches enabling key industry standards: RapidIO(R), PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express(R), Power Architecture(TM), VME, HyperTransport(TM), Interlaken, and SPI4.2. Tundra's products deliver high functional quality and simplified board design and layout, with specific focus on system level signal integrity. Tundra's design services division, Silicon Logic Engineering, Inc., offers industry-leading ASIC and FPGA design services, semiconductor intellectual property and product development consulting. Tundra's technology connects critical components in high performance embedded systems around the world.

For more information, visit http://www.tundra.com or call 613/697-6788.

Development of the Tsi577 was made possible in part with the assistance of the Technology Partnerships Canada Program.