Lightspeed Brings 100MHz UTOPIA 2/3 Interface and Gigabit MAC Cores to Fast-Turn ASIC Market - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 14, 2000

LightSpeed Semiconductor Corporation announced Monday the availability of two new pre-verified netlist cores from Stargate Solutions, Inc. for implementation on its fast-turn Module Based Array (MBA) technology. LightSpeed now offers the Stargate UTOPIA (Universal Test and Operation PHY Interfaces for ATM) Level 2/3 interface and Gigabit Media Access Controller (MAC) netlist IP (intellectual property) cores as part of its InstantCore program. This extension of LightSpeed's licensing agreement with Stargate is the latest in a series of agreements LightSpeed has executed to expand its communications IP offerings.

"Experience has proven that LightSpeed's MBA devices are ideally suited for many communications and networking applications," said David P. Lautzenheiser, vice president of marketing at LightSpeed. "Combining the MBA architecture with Stargate's high-quality cores will allow engineers unprecedented flexibility in implementing designs for these applications."

Stargate was the first partner to join LightSpeed's InstantCore IP program. LightSpeed announced its first series of pre-verified netlist version cores from Stargate in April of 1999.

"LightSpeed, with their fast-turn, cost-effective-NRE approach to ASIC development, gives us access to a broad audience of designers that are seeking the performance and density advantages of ASIC design, while at the same time eliminating the long lead time and NRE-cost penalties of standard cell," said John Perry, Stargate's vice president of marketing. Gigabit MAC

LightSpeed offers the Gigabit MAC IP as well as Ethernet test environment software to allow communications systems designers to quickly develop and produce value-added products, such as switches, routers, and Internet devices, by taking advantage of the Gigabit MAC Ethernet capabilities. The Ethernet test environment ensures that the end product meets the IEEE 802.3z specification. UTOPIA 2/3 Interface

The UTOPIA core interfaces between physical-layer (PHY) or framer chips for speeds from OC3 through OC48. The core, which operates in full-duplex mode, can be set to either UTOPIA 2 or UTOPIA 3 specifications and is capable of handling multiple PHY chips. The core features a programmable 32- or 64-bit data interface that allows direct access to the internal ATM switch fabric. Implemented on LightSpeed's high-performance, high-density devices, the UTOPIA core supports interfaces at speeds up to 100MHz in ATM applications, xDSL terminal adapters, and broadband access equipment.

The UTOPIA core is compatible with a broad range of solutions and features parity generation and detection, local cell sizes of 52/53/54 bytes, and octet- and cell-level transfers. The core can maintain four independent ports with individual clocks. LightSpeed's IP Strategy Makes Lower-Cost, Moderate-Volume ASIC Designs Possible

According to Dataquest, the IP market will continue to grow by nearly 40 percent in 2000. LightSpeed is focusing its resources on ensuring that designers requiring low to moderate volumes of devices whose performance or time-to-production requirements are not met by FPGAs or standard-cell ASICs have access to high-quality, pre-tested cores. With the addition of the UTOPIA and Gigabit MAC IP, LightSpeed's InstantCore library now offers more than 75 cores targeted toward networking and communications designs.

"LightSpeed is delivering the time-to-market advantage that is critical for success with networking products," Perry added. "Our cores, paired with LightSpeed's silicon, provide a ready advantage for designers that need high-performance, high-quality devices that can be turned quickly and cost effectively."

LightSpeed's MBA architecture and design methodology dramatically shorten product development time and ramp to volume production while simplifying standard ASIC design flows to provide high-density, high-performance solutions. A unique TopMetal single-mask solution dramatically reduces NRE (non-recurring engineering) costs, minimizes turnaround time, and enables production flexibility, making MBAs an ideal choice for moderate-volume designs.

LightSpeed offers the Gigabit MAC and UTOPIA cores through its InstantCore IP program, which gives customers access to pre-verified netlist versions of IP cores at a significant discount, while providing the fastest means to successful integration and ramp to volume production.

LightSpeed offers designers a one-stop shop for silicon-validated cores, MBA silicon, and support, making it easy for designers to integrate a wide variety of core functions into an MBA. Use of silicon-validated netlist cores further simplifies the integration process because the netlist blocks reduce both processing time and the risk of functionality changes due to re-synthesis. LightSpeed ensures customers' success by implementing critical IP functions into silicon. Silicon validation demonstrates the actual timing and utilization, reducing the uncertainty inherent in buying "soft" IP. In addition, LightSpeed's built-in AutoTest architecture eliminates test issues and concerns by providing automatic 100 percent stuck-at fault coverage. Price and Availability