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SONICS SMART INTERCONNECTS™ FOUNDATION OF NEW K-MICRO TOPAZ ADVANCED COMPUTING SUBSYSTEM FOR SoCs
Topaz Offers Fast Customization Supporting Individual Customer Needs
SAN JOSE, Calif. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – September 26, 2005 – K-micro, a leader in advanced yet affordable ASICs, and Sonics Inc.®, the premier supplier of system-on-chip (SoC) SMART Interconnects™, today announced that Sonics’ SiliconBackplane™ III and Sonics3220™ SMART Interconnect™ technologies form the core of K-micro’s new Topaz computing subsystem for SoC design.
Announced today, Topaz allows customers to rapidly combine their proprietary designs with standard technology blocks from K-micro’s IP portfolio. Sonics SMART Interconnects provide the complex data flow services to manage IP blocks, such as microprocessors, DSPs, hardware accelerators or packet processors, with a high degree of silicon efficiency and high data throughput. As a result, the engineering effort to develop similar data flow services now required to complete SoC designs has been eliminated.
"Sonics’ technology is an essential element enabling the key value provided by Topaz, namely fast
customization," said Sunil Baliga, vice-president of marketing and business development at K-micro. "The
SiliconBackplane III is used as the main interconnect in Topaz, with the Sonics3220 used to interconnect numerous
Topaz peripherals, such as UART, Timer, and I2C. We plan to use Sonics technology, including Sonics MX™,
as we roll out future versions of Topaz."
"Our participation with K-micro brings together a comprehensive, field-proven SoC interconnect architecture
with a proven design methodology," said Phil Casini, vice president of marketing at Sonics. "Customers
can leverage this combination to build complex SoCs in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the cost
when compared to traditional design methodologies that are now outdated."
ABOUT K-MICRO (KAWASAKI MICROELECTRONICS)
K-micro is a leader in advanced yet affordable ASIC technology. The company’s innovative technologies
and world-class design support are used in the consumer electronics, computer, office-automation, networking
and storage markets. The company is an active participant in industry standards organizations, including
the Wi-Fi Alliance, Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), USB Implementers
Forum, MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF), Mobile Computing Promotion Consortium (MCPC), the Digital Display Working
Group (DDWG), SD Card Association (SDA) and OCP International Partnership (OCP-IP). K-micro has design centers
in Boston, San Jose, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, contact the company at 408-570-0555, or visit http://www.k-micro.us/.
ABOUT SONICS
Sonics, Inc. is a leading provider of SMART Interconnects that deliver high SoC design predictability and
increased design efficiency. Major semiconductor and systems companies including Broadcom, Samsung, Texas
Instruments and Toshiba have applied Sonics SMART Interconnects in leading products in the wireless,
digital multimedia and communications markets. Sonics is a privately-held company funded by Investar Capital,
Smart Technology Ventures, TL Ventures, Easton Hunt Capital, JAFCO Ventures, and H&Q Asia-Pacific. For
more information, see http://www.sonicsinc.com.
Sonics is a registered trademark and SMART Interconnects, SiliconBackplane, and Sonics3220 are trademarks of Sonics, Inc.
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K-micro Press Contact:
Sacha Arts
Slider & Associates
408-356-3099
sacha@sliderassociates.com
Sonics Press Contact:
Nancy Sheffield
Acclaim Public Relations
408-269-0849
nancys@acclaimpr.com