New Semiconductor IP Start-up Previews Silicon-Based Acceleration Technology for Wireless Internet Applications

AUSTIN, TX (October 9, 2000) - Chicory Systems, a semiconductor intellectual property (IP) startup, has developed an advanced silicon-based acceleration platform architecture that dramatically speeds applications based on wireless open software standards such as Java up to 25X.  Products based on the new technology will be demonstrated at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, California on Tuesday, October 10.  Chicory Systems’ HotShotÔ Architecture provides a highly modular approach for integrating multiple specialized accelerators as a standard peripheral attached to popular microprocessors.

One or more silicon-based accelerators may be integrated into the HotShot Engine to form a complete wireless software acceleration platform.  Aimed at enabling a new class of complex wireless Internet applications on low-power devices, the silicon platform has been designed to accelerate critical software environments such as Java, WAP, i-mode, XML as well as boost media processing performance for standards such as MPEG, JPEG and PNG files.  An additional application for the Chicory Systems’ technology includes “on-the-fly” instruction set translation. The initial implementation of this highly portable architecture has been designed to work with ARM processors. “We are developing an entire family of accelerators based on the HotShot platform that will enable Internet-connected cell phones and PDAs to have the processing power to be part of the enterprise computing environment,” said John Derrick, Chicory Systems’ founder and President.  In addition to significantly boosting performance, the HotShot platform also substantially reduces the amount of battery energy required to run demanding applications.

Unlike first-generation acceleration technology approaches such as dedicated function coprocessors, single-task hardware interpreters or language-specific instruction set extensions, the HotShot platform employs just-in-time (JIT) software compiler techniques implemented in high-speed silicon to generate highly optimized streams of native host processor instructions.  In addition to accelerating application performance, the technology also decreases battery power requirements for host code execution up to 95 percent.

No modifications to applications, operating systems or processor cores are required to take advantage of HotShot Engine/Accelerator performance and power improvements. Low-power, small silicon size and a minimal memory footprint were key design goals in implementing the technology for battery operated embedded devices.

About Chicory Systems:
Chicory Systems is a semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider that has developed an advanced technology for accelerating Internet applications by migrating complex systems software into high-performance silicon.  The Company’s initial products, which are now available, address the needs of wireless handheld computing devices running applications for the emerging J2ME MIDP environment.  The Austin, Texas-based Company is venture-backed and was incorporated in October 1999. Please visit our Web site at <http://www.chicorysystems.com> or call 866-CHICORY (866-244-2679) for additional company or product information.

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Chicory Systems, Chicorysystems.com, HotShot, and HotShot Accelerator are trademarks or registered trademarks of Chicory Systems, Inc in the United States and other countries.  All other marks referenced are those of their respective owners.
 
 

Press Contacts:

Katie Olivier or Ginger Grinsfelder
Shelton Communications Group
972.239.5119
972.239.5120
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Company Contact:

Kent Nutt
Chicory Systems, Inc.
512.228.1016
866.CHICORY (866.244.2679)
kent.nutt@chicorysystems.com