IDT Introduces New High-Density, 36-Bit FIFOs Achieving 4-Mbit Configurations; Market Leader Extends Leading Line of 36-Bit FIFO Memories

Business Wire, Oct 5, 1998

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 5, 1998--IDT (Nasdaq:IDTI), the industry's leading supplier of first-in/first-out (FIFO) memories, today introduced a new line of high-density, 36-bit FIFOs available in densities up to 4 Mbit -- 64 times larger than any 36-bit solution currently available.

The new high-density SyncFIFO(tm) memories, offered at 100-MHz speeds, deliver the industry's best price/performance ratio and are ideal solutions for performance-demanding markets, such as data communications, telecommunications and digital video, where smaller FIFOs often cannot meet system requirements.

In addition, IDT also unveiled 3.3-volt versions of its existing market-leading, 36-bit SyncFIFOs, previously available at 5-volts. The new 3.3-volt SyncFIFOs, combined with the introduction of the new high-density devices, represent the widest range of 36-bit FIFOs available and expand IDT's position as the leader in FIFO technology.

"Emerging products such as our new Raster Image Processor for the color prepress market are requiring extremely dense solutions that can capture and buffer large amounts of data," said Matthew Proujansky, vice president of engineering at RamPage Systems Inc.

"The availability of a high-density FIFO that can meet our requirements of depth, width and speed will provide us with significant advantages over current options, in terms of price, performance and reliability. IDT has delivered what we consider an extremely effective solution."

"Our new 36-bit FIFOs deliver exceptional performance, depth and functionality at an unprecedented price," said Mario Montana, IDT's strategic marketing manager of FIFO products.

"We talked to a wide range of customers and believe we have developed the optimum 36-bit solutions for data-intensive applications such as gigabit-Ethernet routers, wideband CDMA base stations, high-speed switches, cable modems and high-definition TV encoders.

"Many of these applications cannot use smaller FIFOs and have relied on SRAMs and/or custom ASICs to handle buffering tasks. Our new high-density FIFOs deliver superior price/performance over all existing solutions targeted at those applications, as well as a significant time-to-market advantage over an ASIC/SRAM-based solution."

High-Density 36-Bit FIFOs

The new high-density, unidirectional, 36-bit FIFOs, which range in densities from 128 Kbit to 4 Mbit and word depths from 4 K to 128 K, use 3.3-volt supplies and are tolerant of 5-volt inputs. The devices operate at 100 MHz and are the industry's first FIFOs to provide bus matching on both the read and write ports, enabling each port to be configured at a x9, x18 or x36 width.

This feature, combined with the FIFOs' independent read and write clocks, is extremely important for video, telecommunications and data communications applications where large amounts of data need to be simultaneously buffered and moved through busses of varying widths on each port.

The bus-matching feature also makes the new FIFOs cost-effective for applications requiring a high-performance 64-bit microprocessor or a 32-bit DSP, such as the Texas Instruments C6x Family.

Additional features of the new FIFOs include: selectable asynchronous versus synchronous partial flag timing modes, useful when interfacing to the TI C6x DSP Family; low first-word latency; a zero-latency retransmit function; partial reset; endian select; and optional first-word fall-through (FWFT) or IDT Standard timing modes.

3.3-Volt 36-Bit SyncFIFOs

The new lower-power versions of IDT's 36-bit SyncFIFO devices are also 5-volt tolerant and include unidirectional, bidirectional and triple bus configurations, and bus matching features. Bus-matching SyncFIFOs buffer data from a 36-bit wide bus on one side and a 36-, 18- or 9-bit bus on the other side.

In addition, the bidirectional versions provide a significant reduction in board space through bus sharing for data transfers. Other features of the 3.3-volt, 36-bit SyncFIFOs include: byte-swapping; endian select; low first-word latency; FWFT/IDT Standard timing modes; and a mailbox option that allows data to bypass the FIFO without putting it in the queue.

Pricing and Availability

All of the high-density, 36-bit FIFOs and 3.3-volt SyncFIFOs are currently sampling, with production units available in Q4CY98.

-0-

Part               Configuration            Speed         Pin/Pkg    Samples
Number                                     (ns)                   Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
HIGH-DENSITY, 3.3-VOLT 36-BIT FIFOs
72V3660        4Kx36 SyncFIFO            10, 15, 20          128-TQFP     Now
72V3670        8Kx36 SyncFIFO            10, 15, 20          128-TQFP     Now
72V3680        16Kx36 SyncFIFO            10, 15, 20          128-TQFP     Now
72V3690        32Kx36 SyncFIFO            10, 15, 20          128-TQFP     Now
72V36100       64Kx36 SyncFIFO            10, 15, 20          128-TQFP     Now
72V36110      128Kx36 SyncFIFO            10, 15, 20          128-TQFP     Now
Production     Price/Qty
 Available        At 10kU
------------------------
November        $48.90
November        $58.60
November        $70.00
November        $83.70
November        $91.20
November        $96.70

Part               Configuration            Speed         Pin/Pkg    Samples
Number                                     (ns)                   Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3-VOLT, 36-BIT FIFOs
UNIDIRECTIONAL
72V3611        64x36 SyncFIFO           15, 20    120-TQFP/132-PQF        Now
72V3631        512x36 SyncFIFO           15, 20    120-TQFP/132-PQF        Now
72V3641        1Kx36 SyncFIFO           15, 20    120-TQFP/132-PQF        Now
72V3651        2Kx36 SyncFIFO           15, 20    120-TQFP/132-PQF        Now
Production     Price/Qty
 Available        At 10kU
------------------------
October        $18.50
November       $35.00
November       $41.20
November       $50.40

Part               Configuration            Speed     Pin/Pkg           Samples
Number                                     (ns)                   Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
UNIDIRECTIONAL WITH BUS MATCHING
72V3613        64x36 SyncFIFO            15, 20   120-TQFP/132-PQF        Now
72V3623        256x36 SyncFIFO            15, 20   128-TQFP                Now
72V3633        512x36 SyncFIFO            15, 20   128-TQFP                Now
72V3643        1Kx36 SyncFIFO            15, 20   128-TQFP                Now
Production     Price/Qty
 Available        At 10kU
------------------------
November       $18.50
October        $26.90
October        $32.50
October        $38.40

Part             Configuration        Speed           Pin/Pkg          Samples
Number                                 (ns)                          Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BIDIRECTIONAL
72V3612     64x36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20  120-TQFP/132-PQF     Now
72V3622     256x36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20  120-TQFP/132-PQF     Now
72V3632     512x36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20  120-TQFP/132-PQF     Now
72V3642     1Kx36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20  120-TQFP/132-PQF     Now
Production     Price/Qty
 Available        At 10kU
------------------------
October        $23.75
October        $32.15
October        $41.05
October        $53.00

Part             Configuration        Speed           Pin/Pkg          Samples
Number                                 (ns)                          Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BIDIRECTIONAL WITH BUS MATCHING
72V3614     64x36x2 SyncFIFO        15, 20        120-TQFP/132-PQF     Now
72V3624     256x36x2 SyncFIFO        15, 20        128-TQFP             Now
72V3634     512x36x2 SyncFIFO        15, 20        128-TQFP             Now
72V3644     1Kx36x2 SyncFIFO        15, 20        128-TQFP             Now
Production     Price/Qty
 Available        At 10kU
------------------------
October        $24.05
October        $29.30
October        $38.70
October        $53.70

Part             Configuration        Speed           Pin/Pkg          Samples
Number                                 (ns)                          Available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
TRIPLE BUS
72V3626     256x36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20    128-TQFP            Now
72V3636     512x36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20    128-TQFP            Now
72V3646     1Kx36x2 SyncFIFO         15, 20    128-TQFP            Now
Production     Price/Qty
 Available        At 10kU
------------------------
November       $29.30
November       $38.70
November       $53.70