Samsung licenses SGS' DSP core

Electronic News, Jan 29, 1996 by Andrew MacLellan

Lincoln, Mass.--Samsung has licensed DSP core technology from France's SGS-Thomson under terms of a second sourcing and development agreement--a move that Samsung hopes will strengthen its position in the digital logic market and foster closer ties with Europe's semiconductor industry.

The first phase of the licensing agreement will include the rights to SGS-Thomson's D950 DSP core and a reciprocal second sourcing pact for products based on the family. According to the principals, the arrangement is expected to enable SGS-Thomson to extend its presence in the DSP market--with the goal of establishing the D950 family as an industry standard--while at the same time solidifying Samsung's stance as a manufacturer of non-memory chips. According to Samsung, only 12 percent of its $8 billion in semiconductor sales last year was comprised of chips outside the memory arena.

The partnership eventually is expected to include joint development of future generations of the D950 and possible licensing of other SGS-Thomson micro core technologies, although both parties said they are still settling into the new business arrangement.

"We are pursuing development each on our own side," said Philippe Geyres, VP of SGS-Thomson's programmable products group, in an interview with Electronic News. "We are not excluding joint development, but right now we have no concrete plans for that. Our first objective is to make our DSP architecture a standard in the industry and to gain a significant market share with our DSP design."

Financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed but SGS-Thomson said it will continue to run D950 wafers at its 200mm (8-inch) fab in Crolles, France--with ramp-ups slated for Phoenix and Rousset, France--while Samsung will manufacture D950-based products at Kiheung in Korea. According to SGS-Thomson, Samsung is the only second source for the D950, although the license is non-exclusive and leaves the possibility open that other OEMs may sign on. Samsung will begin production of a 16-bit DSP and 32-bit MCU in 1997.

Currently available for $10 each or less in volume quantity from SGS-Thomson, the 3.3-volt D950 is a 40-million instructions/second 16-bit fixed-point DSP core manufactured with 0.5-micron triple-metal-layer HCMOS5 process technology. Introduced by SGS-Thomson last spring (EN, May 1, 1995), the IC's appeal lies in the fact that it is a true DSP core, and not a standard device altered to meet custom design specifications.

In a related development, DRAM vendors NEC and Samsung have embarked on a joint venture to iron out an industry-wide SDRAM specification. Picking up where the JEDEC SDRAM standard leaves off, NEC is promoting the adoption of 10 additional characteristics, relating to electrical timing, it would like to see standardized in the hopes of coalescing industry support for SDRAM as the successor to extended data out (EDO) technology. Samsung has agreed to work with NEC to make sure both its device and NEC's SDRAM-Lite are compatible, creating what would be in effect a new de facto industry standard. The two companies are currently developing both 16-megabit and 64M chips.