Virtual Silicon lends its libraries for UMC process

Virtual Silicon lends its libraries for UMC process
By Michael Santarini, EE Times
November 8, 1999 (10:29 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19991108S0013

Library vendor Virtual Silicon Technology Inc. said it has agreed to supply its silicon libraries for UMC Group's 0.15-micron process. The agreement covers standard cells, I/O pads and memory compilers, all of which are certified under UMC's Gold IP program.

Under the contract terms, Virtual Silicon (Sunnyvale, Calif.) will deliver developers' kits, endorsed by UMC Group, to customers, design houses, intellectual-property suppliers and other library vendors for extending the Virtual Silicon library offering with additional standard cells and advanced I/O cores. The developers' kits consist of specifications, cell templates, design guidelines and testbenches to promote an open architecture, according to the companies.

The UMC libraries will be available in the first quarter. See www.umcgroup.com or www.virtual-silicon.com for more information.

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MIPS Technologies said it has granted SandCraft Inc. a license to use the MIPS32 and MIPS64 MIPS processor architecture in its own processor designs.

Before the announcement, SandCraft (Santa Clara, Calif.) and MIPS Technologies (Mountain View, Calif.) had an informal relationship, with SandCraft basically working under the motto, " 'If you have a MIPS license, we will build it,' " said Norman Yeung, president and chief executive officer of SandCraft.

"We were able to help MIPS strengthen and proliferate its architecture through our processor designs," said Yeung. "Now we are able to help them extend it further by licensing the MIPS64."

MIPS Technologies said the licensing agreement permits SandCraft to design and sell customized 32-bit and 64-bit processors that are fully compatible with the MIPS architecture.

SandCraft (www.sandcraft.com) has thus far developed MIPS-based cores for NEC and LSI Logic.

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De nali Software Inc. announced that NEC Corp. (Tokyo) is using Denali memory models for Web-based delivery of its external DRAM models.

Denali (Palo Alto, Calif.) said its models support Jedec standard JESD 21-C as well as NEC's Virtual Channel (VC) SRAM technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Denali will develop Specification of Memory Architecture (SOMA) models for all existing and future external NEC DRAM devices such as SDRAM, double-data-rate SDRAM, Rambus DRAM and VC-SDRAM.

The Denali SOMA memory models are found on NEC's Web site at www.ic.nec.co.jp/memory/models/index.html.

Denali's SOMA models are also available from Advanced Micro Devices, Cypress, Motorola, IBM and Rambus and are said to be in use by more than 150 companies worldwide. Visit www.denalisoft.com.