Palmchip Introduces Serial ATA Target Core

SAN JOSE, California, April 21, 2003 - Palmchip Corporation, a pioneer in semiconductor IP and system-on-chip technology, today announced the availability its new serial ATA target controller core (BK-3720). The BK-3720 core is designed to interface between a host system and a storage controller, either solid state or rotating media, optical or magnetic.

The core implements transfer speeds of 150 MB/s and is compliant with the Serial ATA 1.0A specification. The BK-3720 has integrated serial ATA transport and link layer logic. It supports 48-bit sector addressing and has a 256-byte FIFO for buffering data. Additional features include buffers for incoming and outgoing packets and for ATAPI packet commands.

"The demand for serial ATA IP is rapidly accelerating," said Jim Venable, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Palmchip. "By bringing out the target product we can now offer our customers both sides of the SATA IP solution, host side and target side."

Serial ATA is an evolutionary replacement for the parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is scalable and will allow future enhancements to the computing platform. This technology supports smaller cable connectors-a key advantage for system designers. For more information on serial ATA, go to www.serialata.org

Palmchip's serial ATA core decodes an incoming host command and sets up the proper interrupts and status for the local microprocessor to handle various ATA commands. Many commands can be automated for full data transfer with minimal firmware support. Options also exist for full firmware handling of each phase of command handling. The BK-3720 includes support for very large storage devices.

This core is designed for flexibility by allowing the engineer to interface the local processor through either the CoreFrame® PalmBusTM or the AMBA AHB slave interface and to connect local system memory through either the CoreFrame® MBus interface or the AMBA AHB master interface. Additionally, it can be connected to most peripheral expansion buses.

The BK-3720 can be licensed either standalone or as part of the DP-1800 PalmPak and the DP-2000 AcurX SOC Platform as a library component (P/N LC-3720).

Availability
BK-3720 serial ATA IP core is available today. Contact Palmchip Corporation for pricing: 408-952-2008.

About Palmchip
Palmchip Corporation develops and licenses configurable SoC platforms, subsystems, and IP cores for embedded SoC's used in a variety of applications. Palmchip's IP is based on its CoreFrameÒ integration technology. This technology is independent of processor, I/O or foundry, allowing designers flexibility in porting IP from any number of sources. Palmchip was established in 1996 and is today a privately held company based in San Jose, California (USA). More information can be obtained at www.palmchip.com.

Palmchip, the palm leaf logo and CoreFrame are registered trademarks of Palmchip Corporation. AcurX, PalmPak, Matrix, Timing Taps, and CrosSwitch are trademark of Palmchip Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners