Fujitsu, Toshiba report on merged SoC efforts

Fujitsu, Toshiba report on merged SoC efforts
By Yoshiko Hara, EE Times
October 22, 2002 (7:40 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20021021S0036

TOKYO — Fujitsu Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. have provided a progress report on their system-on-chip (SoC) collaboration efforts, which have been shadowed by rumors of a break-up since they were first announced in June.

"Some parts of the collaboration have started and we can now show the guidelines of the collaboration," a Toshiba spokesman said.

The final form of the companies' merged system LSI operations is still not clear, however, and the companies said they are still discussing whether they will form a single unified operation.

Fujitsu and Toshiba said they are focusing on three areas where collaboration is most practical: the joint development of a design infrastructure for 90-nanometer nd 65-nm products; the joint development of advanced process technologies for 90-nm and 65-nm generation devices; and the possible development of SoC solutions. While some SoC application areas have been chosen, the companies said the r ange is still broad, including such areas as digital home networks and mobile networks.

In one sign of progress, the companies said engineers from both companies are working together to develop common intellectual property (IP) cores for USB, PCI, serial interfaces, image/video-related applications, encryption technologies, D/A converters, A/D converters and PLLs.

The companies intend to complete their plans by the end of the next fiscal year in March 2004.