Renesas Licenses Cadence' Tensilica ConnX D2 DSP for Next-Generation IoT Chip

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Aug. 28, 2013 – Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, today announced that as part of their Smart Society initiative, Renesas Electronics Corporation has licensed the Tensilica ConnX D2 DSP (digital signal processor) for a next-generation chip designed for  Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Combined with the special acceleration packages optimized for IoT wired and wireless modem standards, the ConnX D2 DSP was selected because it met the low-power, small-size and high-performance requirements for Renesas’ new chip, with extra headroom for future standards. The acceleration packages enable a 10X power/performance improvement over the standard ConnX D2 performance.

“Renesas’ selection of our ConnX D2 for this design is a testimonial of Renesas’ high level of satisfaction with Tensilica cores and design support team,” stated Eric Dewannain, group director baseband IP, IP Group at Cadence. “Having already licensed our HiFi Audio DSP for mobile wireless and automotive and our ConnX BBE16 for digital broadcasting receivers, our goal is to help Renesas bring their future IoT products to life”

The ConnX D2 is a very efficient 2-MAC (multiply-accumulate) 16-bit fixed point DSP that has been customized with specific acceleration packages that enable algorithm-specific optimizations for key communications computations such as Viterbi (convolutional) decoding or Reed Solomon encoding/decoding.  The ConnX D2 DSP engine is suitable for a wide variety of applications, including Internet of Things modems, mixed-signal and other Internet and signal processing connectivity applications. It is fully programmable in C, eliminating the need to use assembly coding as with other DSPs.

About Cadence

Cadence enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics. Customers use Cadence software, hardware, IP, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about the company, its products, and services is available here.