NEC Electronics Europe develops System-on-Chip Lite+

More performance, more features and Ethernet™-ready

Düsseldorf, Germany — 02 Jun 2003

NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, the European semiconductor arm of NEC Electronics Corporation, today announced their System-on-Chip Lite+ (SoCLite+) device.

After having successfully launched the System-on-Gate-Array family concept with System-on-Chip Lite (SoCLite) and SoCsmart (System-on-Chip Smart), NEC Electronics is now developing SoCLite+. The SoCLite+ is a customizable microcontroller device that includes a complete ARM7™ family core-based microcontroller subsystem together with a gate array area that enables customers to insert their application-specific extensions to the core. The microcontroller subsystem consists of the well-established ARM7TDMI-S 32-bit RISC CPU core integrated with peripherals, such as a UART, a timer, an interrupt controller and a watchdog timer. In addition, the SoCLite+ microcontroller subsystem also features a 10/100M Ethernet MAC and an advanced multiport memory controller supporting SDRAM, SRAM, ROM and Flash giving the advantage of high data throughput that supports peripherals with high memory transfer rates.

In SoCLite+ both buses of the ARM® microcontroller subsystem, the AHB and the APB, are accessible from the user-defined logic (UDL) implemented in the gate array area. The SoCLite+ device is realized in NEC’s advanced 0.25 µm (drawn gate length) CMOS-10HD ASIC technology with a supply voltage of 2.5 V. 3.3 V and 5 V tolerant interface buffers are available.

In addition to the introduction of the SoCLite+ product, a dedicated development board for SoCLite+ will be introduced at the same time. This FPGA-based SoCLite+ development board is an essential part of the SoCLite+ product, as it facilitates an early start to software development and in-system preverification of the SoCLite+ device prior to manufacturing on silicon. The complete SoCLite+ design concept thus facilitates design work and significantly reduces the inherent risk of such complex system-level designs.

After verification at board level, the custom design and the NEC Electronics pre-designed ARM core-based microcontroller subsystem are implemented together in real silicon applying NEC’s standard gate array design flow using NEC’s OpenCAD™ design environment. The outcome is a single-chip device containing a complex microcontroller that perfectly matches customer requirements. For customers not familiar with gate array design flows, NEC and its partners also offer FPGA conversion services for a simple design handover.

SoCLite+ target applications are in the industrial and low-end telecommunications markets. Customers who have to differentiate their systems by hardware and who have to optimize their systems for cost and efficiency will find SoCLite+ the ideal product for their requirements.

“The new SoCLite+ System-on-Gate-Array product offers a unique platform for our industrial target markets, automation and building management systems. The Ethernet function implemented both in the hardware and the operating system provided with the product will offer added value to customer system designs. With SoCLite+, NEC enlarges the roadmap of its platform product portfolio by a new member. This will enable us to increase our market share in embedded Ethernet products,” said Haroon Rashid, General Manager of the Industrial & Distribution Business Unit at NEC Electronics (Europe).

“NEC’s decision to use a full range of ARM® technology in the development of their innovative SoCLite+ product – from the ARM7TDMI-S core to the AMBA™ bus and PrimeCell® peripherals – has enabled them to maximize design efficiency while minimising risk and development time scales,” said Bruce Beckloff, director, European Marketing, ARM. “The SoCLite+ product, which combines the industry-proven ARM architecture with NEC’s outstanding technology and design competence, will provide NEC’s customers with a new generation of application optimized, cost-effective, ARM Powered® microcontroller solutions.”

Because the complete ARM7TDMI-S core-based subsystem and the gate array area (realized as a sea-of-gates structure) are pre-diffused, only the metallization layers are required for final implementation of the customer-specific logic. This keeps unit costs and NRE costs low and results in short prototyping turnaround times – not least because of the easy gate array design flow. SoCLite+ will come in two options. One option with a capacity of 100k (raw) user gates and a second one with a capacity of 250k (raw) gates. SoCLite+ custom controller devices will be available at unit prices starting from below 10 Euro.

Prototypes and development boards for SoCLite+ will be available by the 4th quarter 2003. Mass production will be available by beginning of 2004.

About NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH

NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, headquartered in Duesseldorf, Germany, is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of semiconductor products in Europe. Committed to meeting customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements, the company offers solutions ranging from standard products to system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, as well as customized products for next-generation designs. NEC Electronics also offers customers the benefit of state-of-the-art manufacturing locally in Europe, besides the global production of its parent company, NEC Electronics Corporation. Additionally, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH is the exclusive European sales and marketing channel of LCD and PDP modules from NEC LCD Technologies Ltd. For more information visit http://www.ee.nec.de.

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