Atmel and ASTRI Announce Collaboration for Systems-on-Chip

(Business News & Technology News, 29 Oct 2007)

Atmel Corp. and Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI) have announced a collaboration, based on Atmel's CAP customizable ARM microcontroller, and ASTRI's design expertise, IP blocks and software. This collaboration is in the context of ASTRI's established Low-power MCU Design Platform project that aims to lower the technical entry barriers for companies undertaking microcontroller-based system-on-chip designs for specific applications.

In terms of the agreement, ASTRI, incorporating IP blocks from their extensive libraries, will support clients in transforming their design specifications into netlists for the metal programmable portion of the AT91CAP customizable microcontroller. The netlists will be validated on the AT91CAP emulation board by mapping them onto the built-in FPGA, before being transferred to Atmel for placement and routing, and metal programming of the AT91CAP platform. ASTRI will perform post-layout simulation prior to customer signoff for fabrication.

Atmel's CAP is an ARM microcontroller-based system-on-chip with fast local memory, a wide range of industry-standard peripherals and interfaces, and a Metal Programmable (MP) Block that allows the designer to add custom logic. By combining the performance, density and low power consumption of the fixed portion of the device with the flexibility of the MP Block, CAP enables application-specific products to be developed in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of standard-cell ASICs, but at a unit price close to that of standard cell devices. CAP also offers superior performance, smaller form factor and lower power consumption at a unit price significantly lower than an MCU-plus-FPGA combination for the same functionality. CAP is fully supported with an emulation board, software development tools, operating systems, code modules and a worldwide network of expert design centers to facilitate application software development. The CAP MP Block can be personalized with IP developed by the customer, by third-party design centers or from Atmel's extensive libraries.

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Click here for more information on ASTRI's IC design program

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