Behind-the-scenes leadership roles push TI's PCI bus products into forefront of the industry
Texas Instruments' leadership position in CardBus and PC Card technology for the PCI bus is the result of many years of work. It took a great deal of time and attention to other aspects of the technology besides just product parameters and performance characteristics. As is the case in many of the other data transmission markets where TI actively participates, product leadership in PCI bus solutions has resulted from taking on the role of industry leader and all that it entails.
Shaping the standards
TI today supplies PCI bus-to-CardBus controllers for nine of the top 10 notebook computer manufacturers. The road leading to this position stretches back to a time when the market was just emerging.
TI has always asserted a strong leadership position in the development of standards and specifications. The PCI bus, CardBus and PC Card standards are no exception. The company currently holds the chairpersonship of the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), the group that spearheaded the development of the 16-bit PC Card specification and the 32-bit
CardBus standard. Additionally, TI is represented on the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) Steering Committee, as well as the PCI-to-PCI bridge working committee and the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) and PCI Power Management committees.
The company co-developed standards in many data transmission market segments, including IEEE 1394 Firewire (TM), Universal Serial Bus (USB), infrared communications (IrDA) and LVDS (low voltage differential signaling). TI has leveraged the experience it has gained in these segments of the data transmission market into a leadership position in PCI bus.
Furthermore, TI has formed strong working relationships with many of the major PC suppliers so that its PCI bus products would incorporate the features and capabilities needed to assure success in this competitive marketplace. For example, TI has worked with these OEMs to help define the Device Class Power Management (DCPM) specification (Ver. 2.0), which forms the basis for Microsoft's OnNow initiative. OnNow is an attempt to make PCs easier to use by providing instantaneous access to the computer's capabilities without going through a time-consuming boot-up process. Likewise, many strategic relationships have been developed over the years with software developers and suppliers of complementary technologies so that TI's PCI bus products deliver synergistic value to customers.
Technology Leadership
Early involvement in standard setting activities and close working relationships with strategic customers have led to the development of TI's broad and deep PCIBus product line with many ground-breaking firsts in the industry. TI's CardBus controllers address every segment of the market; from handheld applications with single-socket CardBus requirements to high-performance multimedia portable computers needing dual-socketed CardBus controllers. Between either end of the market, TI's various PCIBus controllers have been targeted to provide just those features needed to satisfy
cost-conscious consumers.
In 1995, during the nascent stages of the CardBus market, TI introduced the first CardBus controller for the PCIBus. Moreover, this CardBus controller was the first to receive a Windows 95&$174; logo; signifying TI's device passed the Windows Hardware Quality Lab requirements. With a parallel pipelined FIFO architecture, TI's CardBus controllers were the first in the industry to
achieve the PCIBus theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 132 MBps.
In keeping with the pioneering work it has done on industry standards, TI has been first to market with PC Card and CardBus controllers that support critical specifications like the PCI Power Management, ACPI and Device Class Power Management.
Industry's most extensive compatibility lab
In technology markets, lasting, long-term market success is founded on trust. More portable computer manufacturers trust and rely on TI's PCI bus technology than any other company's controllers because TI offers manufacturers a high level of assurance that its PCI bus-to-CardBus controllers will be compatible with practically every PC Card and CardBus modules available today.
Since the beginning of the PC Card and CardBus markets, a concerted effort has been made to thoroughly test as many modules as possible with TI controllers. Out of this effort the most extensive compatibility testing lab in the industry has been created. TI's compatibility testing lab currently includes PC Card and CardBus modules from more than 80 manufacturers, and the modules tested cover as many as 25 different functions including fax/modem modules, memory cards, wireless communications, data acquisition, video capture, hard drives, network interface cards and others.
Additionally, TI has participated in all six PCMCIA/YENTA interoperability and compatibility Plugfests to assure its controllers work with as many, if not all, PC Card and CardBus modules as possible.
World-Wide Support
Lessons learned in other data transmission markets indicated that worldwide support and a comprehensive set of complementary devices would be critical to attaining and maintaining a leadership role in the CardBus market. As a result, dedicated design teams and application engineering groups are at work in Dallas and Taiwan. Applications development and marketing support is also available in Dallas, Taiwan, Tokyo and Munich.
TI also offers a number of support chips for PCI bus implementations. These include PCI-to-PCI bus bridges, serial interrupt deserializers and PCI bus power switches.
Continuing innovation
Once a leadership position in any market is achieved, it can not be maintained without continuing innovation. TI recently announced that its new generation CardBus controllers are the first in the industry to comply with the PCMCIA CardBus power management specification, which provides the base layer of support for Microsoft's OnNow initiative.
Most recently, new packaging options pioneered by TI hold the promise of even smaller and lighter portable computers and handheld devices. The ball grid array (BGA) MicroStar (TM) package is a new chip scale package (CSP) that is 25 percent the size of and 30 percent the weight of previous generations of chip carriers. Even with its reduced size and weight, the MicroStar package is easy
for customers to use because a manufacturer's existing automated assembly machines can handle it. And, perhaps the most innovative aspect of the MicroStar package is that it does not come with a cost premium.
TI's roadmap for future PCI bus devices calls for a continuation of its leadership in technology, innovation, functionality and packaging across all segments of the market. Indeed, the company foresees a bright future for systems that interface CardBus to the PCI bus. Use of this small form factor will become increasingly widespread in all sorts of new applications including point of sale terminals, automobiles, routers, hubs, repeaters and other types of networking equipment, digital cameras, network PCs and others. Texas Instruments' PCI bus solutions will undoubtedly help launch many of these leading edge applications.
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