Faraday's Full-Speed SoC Platform Accelerates Customers' ASIC Designs

Faraday Announces the A320, an SoC Reference Design Based on Its "Information Appliance Platform"

Hsinchu Taiwan, October 29, 2003 - Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035), a leading silicon IP and fabless ASIC company, today announced an SoC reference design based on the company's "Information Appliance Platform" IP (IA-ComposerTM). Code-named A320 and manufactured in 0.18um CMOS process, this SoC benchmark chip integrates a 32-bit RISC CPU, and many important controller/interface IPs, helping IP and ASIC customers to achieve real-time hardware/software prototyping and evaluation at a very early stage in their IC design.

The A320 is a high-speed, highly-integrated and extendable SoC reference design for a full range of applications. The working performance of its embedded CPU reaches 200 MHz, with the on-chip system bus working at 100 MHz. This chip successfully integrates Faraday's FA526, a 32-bit Faraday ARM architecture RISC CPU, with memory controllers for SDRAM, SRAM, ROM and flash, memory card controllers for CF and SD cards, an Ethernet MAC, a USB2.0 device controller, SSP, I2C, AC97, UART, IrDA, LCD controller and more. Using A320's efficient AHB extension bus, allows customers to verify IPs from multiple sources.

Faraday also provides the A321, a companion IP integrated IC for the A320, which integrates IPs such as AHB to PCI Bridge, USB host controller, PCI host, SM card controller, keyboard/mouse controllers, APB extension bus, and all those used to complete the IA-ComposerTM platform's functionality. Launching a full-speed SoC platform IP, Faraday offers a complete, easy-to-design solution for a variety of portable devices, digital consumer products, as well as industrial computers.

"In an era that time-to-market is so crucial, customers are asking for pre-verified system reference designs and a full-speed development environment that can help them do real-time prototyping and evaluation," said C.J. Liang, Director of Faraday's System Integration Service Division and Core Technology Development Division. "Faraday is using its strengths in IP design and system integration to provide solutions that address customers' needs. We are confident that the overall performance and flexibility of Faraday's platform and reference design will help customers complete their most competitive SoC designs in a very short time and beat all those popular big-name ASSP counterparts in this market."

Availability
Test chips for both A320 and A321 in 0.18um logic process are available for IP and ASIC customers. To ensure an easy start, Faraday offers a complete development environment including EV boards, data sheets, application notes and other technical documentation. 

About Faraday Technology Corporation:
Faraday is a leading IP and ASIC design service provider. With more than 800 silicon proven IPs and over 1,500 ASIC project completed, Faraday holds the key to help you succeed in the SoC era. For more information, please visit http://www.faraday-usa.com