NEC Offers Gate Array SoC

NEC Offers Gate Array SoC
By Embedded.com
October 8, 2001 (7:11 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011008S0063

Santa Clara, CA - NEC released the System-on-a-Chip Lite (SoCLite) gate array family. SoCLite comprises an embedded ARM7 microcontroller core, 190,000 usable logic gates, peripherals, and memory.

The family is targeted at customers using 30,000 to 200,000 units per year in a wide variety of applications.

NEC Electronics is also offering a development board that contains the SoCLite ASIC with an ARM7 microcontroller and an interface to a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). This enables designers to prototype in silicon rather than via simulation. The FPGA can be reprogrammed until the user fully debugs the system. Connectors enable all SoCLite signals to be attached to other hardware in order to prototype the application.

The SoCLite development board works with standard ARM development tools.

After board-level verification, SoCLite designs can be implemented in a single gate-array device with NEC's 0.35-micron drawn ASIC technolo gy.

The SoCLite custom controller device is available in production volumes in a 256-pin plastic ball grid array (PBGA). It costs $17.50 per device. The SoCLite development board costs $5,050.