1999-09-20 , S/IC-2088/46
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

VLSI Technology, a subsidiary of Philips Semiconductors, today announced Processor Builder™, a design methodology that simplifies the challenges of matching processor requirements to application needs and facilitates hardware/software co-development and integration. Processor Builder allows optimized processor subsystems rapidly to be designed and incorporated into System-on-Chip (SOC) solutions that meet particular application requirements.

The first member of the family, ARM9 CPU Builder, provides customer-defined ARM9TDMI processor macros that are optimized to meet the cache, memory and operating system requirements of individual applications. Other family members, to follow shortly, will provide the same feature flexibility for DSP and mixed RISC/DSP cores.

Processor Builder integrates the various functional elements required to successfully optimize processing subsystems but does so with a widely supported industry instruction set and within an SOC framework that facilitates IP reuse. The SOC framework features: cores and sub-system components; analysis tools for system-level design partitioning and optimization; code generation and debug tools for simulation, emulation and integration; documentation and support.

Configuration of the core is performed using a graphical user-interface that allows designers to point and click to build their own processor configuration, selecting the appropriate parameters for cache and memory management and automatically generating the HDLi (Hardware Description Language integrator) RTL description of "their" processor.

HDLi, VLSI's flagship design re-use methodology and standard, is intended to simplify ASIC design while producing more efficient silicon. The HDLi macro compilers and HDL templates permit users to specify parameters specific to their needs and compile a CPU subsystem function block tuned to their application in a matter of seconds.

"Tuning the cache and memory subsystems has become paramount for achieving the optimum price, performance and power combination for a given application," said Ray Slusarczyk, VLSI's director of marketing for the Embedded Processor Group. "For example, with Processor Builder, embedded designers can now readily meet the instruction and data cache requirements of such diverse applications of smart cell phones and set-top boxes."

The feature options of Processor Builder have been selected to address the real world needs of VLSI's customers. The flexibility that customers need for full feature and performance differentiation is available, without sacrificing performance or losing the advantage of having a widely supported instruction set. Working within a widely supported instruction set provides ease of access to broad third-party software solutions. Processor Builder's optimized cores facilitate re-use of field-proven IP from VLSI's deep, vertical market-focused libraries and ensure ease of testability.

Benefits of the Processor Builder family include the application specific subsystem being defined by the user, faster time-to-market and increased technology independence - RTL is synthesizable to a target technology and library, facilitating technology migration and porting and allowing full control over floorplan. In addition RTL allows for pre-synthesis simulations and does not constrain design tools flow.

Major components of the ARM9 CPU Builder are: ARM9TDMI core; instruction and data cache; write buffers; standard memory management unit (MMU) which is Windows CE compatible and features a memory protection unit (MPU); AMBA/AHB system bus; frequency divider block; internal bus interface unit (IBIU) and external coprocessor interface. ARM9 CPU Builder will be initially released in 0.2 micron technology. Production release in early Q4.

VLSI Technology, a subsidiary of Philips Semiconductors, designs and manufactures custom and semicustom integrated circuits for leading firms in the wireless communications, networking, consumer digital entertainment and computing markets. VLSI's value proposition is based on full-service customer support, deep libraries of vertical market-focused IC intellectual property, unparalleled custom circuit design expertise enabled through the Velocity™ Rapid Silicon Prototyping design style, and one of the world's most flexible and efficient custom circuit manufacturing facilities in San Antonio, Texas. The Company is based in San Jose, California, with 1998 revenues from continuing operations of $547.8 million, and approximately 2,200 employees worldwide. Visit VLSI's homepage at  www.vlsi.com.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier based on Dataquest's 1998 report^*). Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs. Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained by accessing its home page at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com

^*) Based on Vendor Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductors Worldwide according to Dataquest's 1998 Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share report published in May, 1999.

Velocity and Processor Builder are trademarks or registered trademarks of VLSI Technology, Inc. All other names and marks are the property of their respective holders.