Sonics Teams with ChipStart to Extend SoC Design Strategies

Reseller Agreement Expands Global Channel for Sonics’ On-Chip Networks

MILPITAS, Calif., – September 16, 2010 – Sonics, Inc.®, the world’s leading supplier of on-chip communications IP, and ChipStart LLC, a semiconductor intellectual property and silicon solution company, announced a new reseller agreement to market next-generation SoC architectures based on ChipStart’s SoC System Manager (SSM) subsystem IP and Sonics’ network-on-chip (NoC) solutions. The agreement expands the worldwide channel for Sonics’ solutions, which are now offered and available for sale through ChipStart as separate products.

Under the agreement, ChipStart will serve as a reseller of Sonics’ on-chip network solutions.  ChipStart will additionally provide platform architecture “templates” based on ChipStart’s SSM and Sonics’ products that offer control and data plane system management functionality for subsystem IP-based SoCs.

“As on-chip connectivity solutions evolve and IP core interoperability efficiency improves, it is natural to see SoC architectures progress to support control and data plane components,” said Howard Pakosh, president and CEO at ChipStart LLC.  “With the combination of Sonics’ pioneering work in driving on-chip network technologies and ChipStart’s innovations around control plane-based system management, SoC developers can take the next evolutionary step and integrate their independent IP into innovative IP subsystems.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with ChipStart on the progression of innovative SoC design strategies,” said Jack Browne, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Sonics.  “SoC designs that leverage the use of IP subsystems based on multiple IP cores have been recognized by Semico Research Corp. and others as an important opportunity for savings in design resources with time-to-market benefits.  ChipStart’s approach using control and data planes reduces the overall complexities necessary to optimize system performance and power when trying to manage all the IP cores in the subsystem.”

About Sonics

Sonics, Inc. is a pioneer of network-on-chip (NoC) technology and today offers SoC designers the largest portfolio of intelligent, on-chip communications solutions for home entertainment, wireless, networking and mobile devices.  With a broad array of silicon-proven IP, Sonics helps designers eliminate memory bottlenecks associated with complex, high-speed SoC design, streamline and unify data flows and solve persistent network challenges in embedded systems with multiple cores.  As the leading supplier of on-chip communications networks for the embedded market, Sonics has enabled its customers to ship more than 750 million units worldwide.  Founded in 1996, Sonics is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. with offices worldwide.  For more information, please visit www.sonicsinc.com and www.sonicsinc.com/blog.