DALLAS (Sept. 16, 1996) -- Texas Instruments (TI) today unveiled its 0.18-micron ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) product offering which will alter the way system architectures are designed, enabling single-chip systems originally envisioned for the 21st Century. Using TI's 125-million transistor TImeline Technology, the TSC6000 Series CMOS standard cell families will deliver a powerful combination of system integration and ultra-low power capabilities. These families will provide designers with virtually unlimited flexibility to design a new generation of innovative and energy-efficient computer, consumer and communications systems.
Systems of the Future Are Available Today
In an emerging networked society which demands ever increasing levels of system performance, versatility and functionality, the ability to implement new system architectures is essential. To meet these challenges, designers will now be able to develop single-chip solutions using TI's advanced 0.18-micron gate array and standard cell families which will offer the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of ASIC-based customizable digital signal processors (cDSP™), memories, mixed-signal functions and end equipment-specific cores.
To address the increasing integration and bandwidth requirements of telecommunications and high performance computing applications, these ASIC families will support microprocessor speeds in excess of 500 Mhz and multiple gigabit-per-second interfaces. To achieve these levels of integration cost-effectively, these ASIC products will deliver benchmark densities, system cores, innovative design methodologies and world-class manufacturing.
These advanced 0.18-micron ASIC families will provide an unprecedented portfolio of intellectual property available for the first time from a single ASIC supplier. ASIC libraries will provide access to a wide range of advanced system building blocks including ATM, MPEG, MAC, PHY, PCI controller, DSP, ARM* microcontroller and microprocessor cores. Designs can also incorporate high density memory (SRAM, FLASH and ROM) and mixed-signal functions. Designers can select the appropriate building blocks and optimize them for their specific applications rather than build them from the ground up.
The TI CAD environment, with interfaces to leading third-party design tools, enables reuse of optimized and verified modules as well as providing hardware/software co-design capabilities. This design environment enables large gains in design efficiency as well as the inherent benefits of using a single vendor for system cores, volume production and technical support.
Ultra Low Power Enhances Consumer Mobility
The full benefits of high integration can only be realized if power consumption is reduced. Along with the integration of multiple functional blocks on one device, these ultra-low voltage ASIC families will achieve more than 10 times the power savings versus existing ASIC products. Longer battery life and increased mobility for users of portable products are the results.
"With a digital wireless phone today, a user has a typical talk time of 2-5 hours before the battery needs to be recharged," said Gilles Delfassy, Worldwide General Manager for the TI Wireless Communications Business Unit. "TI's TSC6000 standard cell family, combined with TI DSP innovations, will enable more features on the phone and reduce the overall power consumption per function of the typical digital baseband section by more than 90 percent, dramatically improving talk time."
The TSC6000 standard cell family will offer ultra low power operation using an advanced high-density cell architecture. The family will achieve a 90 percent reduction in power dissipation versus existing ASIC products through sub-1V core and I/O options, synthesis-optimized low-power macro libraries and power management design methodologies. Application-specific memories will also offer power reduction capabilities which allow for portions of the memory to be "turned off" automatically when not being accessed.
"No longer will batteries in cellular phones, notebook computers or camcorders require recharging every day, nor will batteries in portable CD players, handheld games or entertainment systems need replacing so frequently," said Maheswaran. "TI's new generation of standard cell products will enable efficient systems to be designed with the emphasis on extending battery life."
# # # Trademarks:
cDSP is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated
*EDITOR'S NOTES:
ATM stands for Asynchronous Transfer Mode;
MPEG stands for Motion Picture Equipment Group;
MAC stands for Media Access Controller;
PHY stands for Physical Interface Device
PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect;
ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machines.
Additional Documents
TSC6000 Series 0.18um CMOS Standard Cell Family - Fact Sheet
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