The BK-3709 IDE Host Controller includes all of the digital circuitry needed to provide a complete interface between a host processor system and an IDE- or ATAPI-compatible hard drive subsystem or device.The BK-3709 includes PIO (programmed I/O), multi-word DMA (direct memory access), and Ultra ATA interface circuitry.It supports up to four separate hard disk drive devices.The core is shipped as RTL Verilog source code.Documentation, synthesis scripts, and a test bench are available.The test bench includes the RTL source code, a simulation harness, models for the ATA slave devices, DMA and control interfaces, and test stimulus files.

The BK-3709 core supports primary and secondary data channels with independent or combined interrupts.It supports PIO modes 1 through 4, multi-word DMA modes 0, 1 and 2, and synchronous Ultra ATA-33 and -66 modes 0 through 4.The design is verified for operation at clock speeds of up to 100 MHz.An enhanced version, the BK-3710 featuring higher performance and Intel register set compatibility, will be available in late June.

"Our IDE Host Controller IP supports fast integration of hard drives into emerging applications such as information appliances, set-top boxes, portable communications systems, and mobile instrumentation," said Melissa Jones, vice president of marketing at Palmchip."It is suitable for use with all form factor IDE/ATA and ATAPI drives and offers a flexible means to reduce cost and design time."

Palmchip Announces Advanced IDE Host Controller IP Core

"The need for management of high speed, high density disk drives has grown dramatically as the portable computing and home entertainment markets have flourished," said David Cavanaugh, senior market research analyst at ICE."Palmchip's reusable IDE host controller IP core provides the highly capable, easy to integrate IP that innovative disk drive manufacturers need to reduce cost and time to market. This controller IP core also offers a large advantage to disk drive manufacturers because it can be custom configured to meet the rapidly increasing performance demands at a constantly lower price demanded by consumer markets, especially the home entertainment and set-top-box segments."

Palmchip announced with Altera Corporation on March 22 of this year that the companies will make the IDE Host Controller available through the Altera Megafunction Partners Program (AMPP^SM) later in 2000.Pricing for the Altera netlist version will be announced when the core is available through the program.

About Palmchip

Palmchip, CoreFrame, and the palm leaf logo are registered trademarks, and FlexiSOC and DirectConnect are trademarks of Palmchip Corporation.All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.