EnVerv Selects Tensilica for Smart Grid Power Line Communications

ConnX  DPUs Provide Efficient Combination of Control and DSP

Santa Clara, CA USA- October 25, 2011 -Tensilica, Inc. today announced that EnVerv has licensed cores from the ConnX DSP (digital signal processors) family for use in a power line communications (PLC) system-on-chip (SOC) design for smart grid applications. Tensilica's ConnX DSPs are low-power, customizable dataplane processors (DPUs) that deliver outstanding performance on compiled C code, without the need for assembly code optimization.

"We picked the ConnX DSP core because of its flexible architecture and excellent processing power," stated Dr. Farrokh Farrokhi, executive vice president of engineering at EnVerv. "By using the ConnX DSP we were able to reap the benefits of implementing custom instructions that are unique to our signal processing algorithms, thus giving us the benefit of a custom DSP design while maintaining the flexibility of a soft architecture."

"The EnVerv application showcases the advantages of using a single Tensilica DPU architecture in an SOC design for signal processing, control and DSP," stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing and business development. "The ConnX DSP combines both control and DSP functions. Tasks can be easily shifted from one to the other depending on workload. Programming and software maintenance is easier because of the ability to customize the development tools for C code programming, with no need for assembly code optimization."

About EnVerv

EnVerv, Inc., is a venture-backed SOC company focused on designing communications chips for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and related power grid and utility applications. For more information, see www.enverv.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. is the leader in customizable dataplane processor IP cores. Dataplane processors combine the best capabilities of DSP and CPU while delivering 10 to 100x the performance because they can be optimized using Tensilica's automated design tools to meet specific signal processing performance targets. Tensilica's DPUs  power SOC designs at system OEMs and six out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including digital TV, Blu-ray Disc players, broadband set top boxes, digital still cameras and portable media players), computers, storage, networking, wireless base station and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica's patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.