Editor: Linley
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Linley Tech Seminar Slides Available. If you missed our recent seminar on High-Speed Interconnect Design, you can download the presentations at no cost by completing the registration page on our web site. The seminar featured technical presentations from leading suppliers of products for interconnects and fabrics, as well as a technology and market overview by The Linley Group. We would like to thank our event sponsors: Freescale, AMCC, StarGen, Tundra, PLX, IDT, Dune, and Pericom. Raza Microelectronics (RMI) has acquired the Alchemy product line from AMD to enhance its portfolio of MIPS processors. RMI currently offers the XLR, a high-end processor that scales to eight multithreaded CPUs, as well as the XL family of single-CPU processors. At speeds of up to 500MHz, the Alchemy devices overlap the XL chips in performance, but they fill a gap by integrating many system functions, whereas the XL chips are standalone processors that require an external chip set. The Alchemy chips dissipate less than 1W and can be used in mobile, consumer, and SMB applications. Alchemy was founded in 1998 by ex-DEC CPU designers Rick Witek, Greg Hoeppner, and others. AMD acquired Alchemy in 2002 with plans to make a big splash in the consumer market, but the revenue from the products grew slowly. AMD later acquired National's x86-based Geode processor and is now focusing on x86 processors. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed; we believe AMD swapped the products for RMI stock instead of cash. RMI plans to hire at least some of the Alchemy engineers but has not disclosed who or how many. With the acquisition, RMI now offers one of the broadest lines of general-purpose embedded processors in the industry, spanning from 333MHz processors at less than $20 to the eight-CPU XLR at 1.2GHz and $850. All of its processors are software compatible, although the Alchemy products are 32-bit MIPS while the others are 64-bit MIPS. This is an impressive accomplishment, particularly for a company that had less than $10 million in revenue in 2005. If RMI can show that it has not bitten off more than it can chew, it should become a formidable player in the embedded-processor market. —Linley Complete
coverage of RMI and Alchemy products appears in our report
A Guide to High-Speed Embedded Processors. Silicon Valley startup ImmenStar emerged from stealth mode, announcing availability of EPON chipsets branded as Mulan. Additionally, the company claims to have eight customers and bookings of several million dollars. This achievement is more remarkable given the company has raised only $5.5 million. Founded in 2004, the 30-person startup sampled its first silicon in 2005 and focused on winning business instead of going public. The Mulan family consists of two devices each for OLT and the ONU. The IS8020 is the first four-port controller for OLT applications and the IS8030 is a derivative single-port OLT controller. Four EPON ports allow carriers to deploy redundant links, which can be used in case the fiber is inadvertently cut. An on-chip 8K-entry TCAM assists with classification. The OLT devices include an ARM-9 processor for maintenance and control-plane software. For the ONU, ImmenStar's products consist of the IS8010 and the IS8015. The former can be used with an external PHY and the latter with third-party Ethernet switches. Instead of an ARM9 CPU, the ONU devices integrate a slower ARM7, which is unable to support standard operating systems such as Linux. ImmenStar, however, offers its iROS software suite, which includes an API and support for dynamic bandwidth allocation. ImmenStar enters the EPON market after PMC-Sierra/Passave, Teknovus, and Centillium. With a growing market, however, ImmenStar still has an opportunity to establish market share. Its OLT devices are unique in supporting four ports, integrated TCAM, and a large number of flows. This level of integration allows OEMs to reduce cost for multiport line cards. The ONU devices, however, lack a processor with sufficient performance to run Linux and industry-standard libraries for networking. With its initial announcements, ImmenStar has delivered a compelling OLT product but needs to develop more-competitive ONU chips. —Jag Complete
coverage of PON products appears in our report A
Guide to Next-Generation Broadband Interface Chips. This week, Chelsio announced it has raised $12 million in its fourth round of funding. The new round includes an investment from LSI Logic, which Chelsio refers to as a semiconductor partner. Chelsio had significant revenue in 2005, and the company claims this round will take it to profitability…Back in April, Silverback Systems raised a $16 million round including a strategic investment from Network Appliance. Rather than consolidating, the 10GbE NIC and iSCSI HBA market is getting more crowded as incumbents raise new money and new entrants such as Myricom and NetXen join the fray. —Bob Complete
coverage of 10GbE NIC products appears in our report
A Guide to Gigabit and 10G Ethernet Silicon.
This new report provides an in-depth look at the products and vendors powering the rapidly evolving residential and SOHO gateway market. Market leaders such as Broadcom, Conexant, Texas Instruments, and Atheros have combined their wireless, broadband, or VoIP technologies with basic RISC CPUs. Competitors, such as Ikanos, Infineon, and PMC-Sierra, are challenging the incumbents with new designs featuring integrated voice processing and dedicated packet processing to handle faster networks. The result is an impressive array of options from both new and established vendors. A Guide to SOHO Gateway Processors updates material published in last year's popular release, "A Guide to Communications Processors." The new title covers the convergence of broadband modems, voice-over-IP, and home networking in a single box: the SOHO gateway. With many processor vendors targeting this hot market, we have incorporated much new material. Highlights include:
This report covers all the newest products in this rapidly moving market. Order by June 30 to take advantage of a special prepublication discount. For more information on this report, visit our web site. To receive The Linley Wire via e-mail, click here
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