Avnet Design Services and Denali Software Announce Development and Distribution Agreement

Business Wire, April 30, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PHOENIX & PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2002

Joint Effort Targets Denali Memory Controller

Intellectual Property for Xilinx FPGAs

Avnet Design Services (ADS), the technical arm of Avnet Electronics Marketing, and Denali Software, the world leader in memory system development, Tuesday announced their agreement to develop and distribute memory controller Intellectual Property (IP) Cores for high-speed DRAM.

Denali's Databahn(TM) product will be used to generate the high-level language description of memory controller cores. ADS will then target these cores to Xilinx(R) FPGA devices and produce customer-ready IP cores. ADS will be Denali's exclusive distribution channel for these new products.

High Performance Memory System Design

The extreme data-bandwidth requirements of networking, communications, and consumer electronics, combined with the new generation of complex DRAM components, make the memory system one of the most challenging elements of chip design today.

As part of the memory system, an on-chip memory controller must be able to understand the timing and protocol of these off-chip memory devices so that data can be transferred between the chip and the external memory.

But most importantly, the memory system must implement sophisticated logic to interpret the multiple streams of data and data requests from the system, and then determine the optimum procedure for getting that data in and out of memory -- all within the bandwidth and latency requirements of the system.

Databahn Technology

Denali's Databahn(TM) product was specifically designed to produce robust memory system IP that can leverage the latest DRAM memories to meet user-specified performance requirements. System architects use Databahn's online configuration interface to select system interface options and set performance requirements.

For selecting memory devices, the Databahn configuration engine is integrated to Denali's eMemory.com where it searches a database of over 4,000 memory component specifications for compatibility.

Alternatively, the system architect can specify a target memory by vendor, speed, or size, which enables the configuration engine to identify the unique features of the target memories, and then optimize the memory controller IP accordingly.

Once the desired configuration is reached, the designer can initiate a simulation on the IP to validate performance estimates, and then download the synthesizable IP core for use in the system design.

"Avnet Design Services is very pleased about this joint effort," said Warren Miller, vice president of marketing for Avnet Design Services. "Denali has demonstrated a great deal of experience, expertise, and customer success. For memory system design, Denali is the industry leader, and we see a lot of potential for this relationship."

The Joint Solution

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will target a specific set of high-speed DRAM devices, and then produce a number of memory controller cores optimized to work with those devices. The companies will work with memory vendors to select the set of memory devices for which the cores are optimized.

Denali's Databahn product will be used to generate optimal memory controller IP for the selected DRAM devices. Avnet Design Services will implement the memory controller cores in Xilinx FPGAs, and produce reference boards and other integration materials. Denali's MMAV(TM) verification IP product will be used for functional verification of the memory controller cores in the reference designs.

The cores and reference boards will be marketed and sold exclusively by Avnet. The initial products that result from this agreement will be announced later this quarter.

"Avnet Design Services is providing the FPGA design expertise to implement the Databahn memory controller IP into Xilinx FPGAs," said Kevin Silver, vice president of marketing for Denali. "Avnet Design Services will create and support reference designs for the Databahn IP, and in addition to customer support, it will offer FPGA design services for custom modifications or integrations.

"Through this partnership, customers are getting an integrated solution from the industry leaders in memory controller IP, FPGA technology, and FPGA design services."

"These new intellectual property cores from Denali and Avnet Design Services will greatly aid our customers in the system level design using the Virtex-II(TM) series FPGAs.

"In particular, we expect the Virtex-II and Virtex-II Pro(TM) families to be used where high-performance and high-capacity memory works in close conjunction with platform FPGAs," said Sandeep Vij, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Xilinx. "The many years of experience Denali has with high-performance memory system design can now be embedded in IP cores that will directly benefit Xilinx customers."

About Avnet Design Services

Avnet Design Services is the technical arm of Avnet Electronics Marketing, providing a variety of technical resources and capabilities to speed customers' design cycles and to get their products to market quicker.