Intelliga Integrated Design, a UK design house develops LIN core for Xilinx

- Essex design house Intelliga Integrated Design has developed a Local Interconnect Network (LIN) core for Xilinx's Spartan, Virtex and CoolRunner FPGAs.

The firm said the core takes up just three per cent of a million gate Spartan3, a device that will cost $12 in volume next year, according to Xilinx. "

We've also been doing a lot of work to fit it into CoolRunner, taking up about half of the larger ones," said Steve Ede, marketing director at Intelliga.

LIN is increasingly used in automotive for non-critical systems, such as electric mirrors, seat adjustment, doors, sunroofs and air conditioning. "Xilinx is very keen to get its silicon into automotive," Ede said.

Intelliga's LIN core is a standalone design, comprising MAC and PHY functions with an interface to transceiver chips, such as Philips' TJA1020.

A development kit is available, as is a kit for a CAN-bus interface that works in Virtex and Spartan FPGAs.

Intelliga started out as a design house in the mid-90s. "We branched out into IP about three years ago," said Ede.

Based in Saffron Walden, the firm employs six people, and has plans to expand next year, perhaps with some external funding.