Innovative Semiconductors introduces smallest area, lowest power USB 2.0 PHY core for portable consumer electronics

– Innovative Semiconductors® (Innovative), the premier supplier of USB PHY and controller logic, today announced availability of its third-generation USB 2.0 On-The-Go PHY intellectual property, I-PHY.

I-PHY is designed for cost effective, reliable, low-power USB connections with personal computers and portable electronics devices including digital still cameras, digital video cameras, MP3 and personal media players, mass storage devices, thumb drives and more.

“Our cores are found in tens of millions of chips today, and we continue to improve our technology to enable consumer electronics manufacturers to go to market with superior performing products quickly and easily,” said Nabil Takla, president and CEO for Innovative Semiconductor. “With I-PHY, we’ve taken our USB 2.0 PHY technology and made it smaller, higher performing and lower power for smaller form factor portable devices.”

I-PHY Small, Low Power, Certified

Innovative introduced the first generation USB technology in 2001 and achieved compliance in March 2002. The first generation products supported the USB Transceiver Macrocell Interface (UTMI) specifications for USB 2.0 devices and the Innovative engineers designed a USB 2.0 PHY Host interface.

The company introduced the second generation technology in September of 2002. The second generation supported UTMI+ OTG specification and integrated board components to reduce board component count and achieve small form factor. Innovative USB 2.0 OTG was certified by the USB-IF

Innovative third generation I-PHY is smaller in area by about 30% compared to the second generation and lower in power by approximately 30%. Most of the competing products are, at best, comparable in area and power to Innovative second generation.

Freescale (Launched by Motorola), LSI Logic and National Semiconductor licensed Innovative USB 2.0 OTG PHY. Manufacturers have a competitive edge when using Innovative USB 2.0 I-PHY and controller logic, because it is swiftly extendable among product lines, which enables rapid time to market and frees up internal engineering resources to focus on designing more differentiating product features.

With Innovative’s extensive history of “firsts” in the USB market, manufacturers can trust I-PHY to be reliable and compatible. “Using Innovative IP, manufacturers can spend more time focusing on their core competencies,” Takla added.

"We're building on the success of our USB knowledge to provide certified USB PHY and controller logic for this rapidly expanding market," Takla continued.

With the low cost, high-performance and low-power requirements of today’s USB OTG solutions, future markets such as cell phones and digital cameras make the need for consistent and reliable communication between devices an essential element of technology development. USB currently has an installed base of more than one billion ports with an additional 2.5 billion interfaces forecasted by In-stat to ship by 2006.

Pricing and Availability

Availability is immediate. License fees vary depending on the process technology and the configuration, for more information please contact Innovative. www.innovative-semi.com/

About Innovative Semiconductor – The USB Experts

Innovative is a leading supplier for fully compliant and certified USB 2.0 (device, host and OTG), IEEE-1394 PHY and Link Controllers, and Video Compression technologies.

Innovative’s devices are utilized in a variety of applications including PCs, PC peripherals, Internet appliances, set top boxes and satellites. Licensed clients include a wide array of high-tech companies, including Agilent, Conexant, Creative Technology, eSilicon, Evans & Sutherland, Freescale (launched by Motorola), Honeywell, IBM, Infineon, LSI Logic, Mentor Graphics, Micron, Mitel, Motorola, NASA, National Semiconductor, nVidia, OKI, PortalPlayer, S3, Samsung, Siemens, ST, Trident Microsystems and Tvia.

Innovative is an active participant in industry organizations and associations such as USB-IF www.usb.org and ULPI WG www.ulpi.org . For more information please visit Innovative: www.innovative-semi.com