Named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, Moore’s Law observes that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. According to Intel, the continuation of Moore’s Law means the rate of progress in the semiconductor space will far surpass that of nearly all other industries. In fact, the future of Moore’s Law could deliver a magnitude of exponential capability increases – driving a fundamental shift in computing, networking, storage and communication devices.
Rambus Licenses Patents and Technology Solutions to IBM
Agreements cover use of memory controller and serial link interface technologies
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — March 23, 2015 — Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) today announced it has signed both patent and technology license agreements with IBM. The patent license agreement authorizes IBM to integrate Rambus memory controller and serial link interface technologies. The technology license agreement will have Rambus develop and deliver high-performance memory interface design IP to enhance IBM systems and semiconductor offerings. Specific terms of the agreements are confidential.
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About Rambus Inc.
Rambus brings invention to market. Our customizable IP cores, architecture licenses, tools, services, and training improve the competitive advantage of our customer’s products while accelerating their time-to-market. Rambus products and innovations capture, secure and move data. For more information, visit rambus.com.
Controllers Newsletter – Q1 2015
New MIPI Camera-to-Display Demo
A new MIPI camera to MIPI display end-to-end demo is now available. This demo highlights the comprehensive MIPI support available from Northwest Logic and features:
- Northwest Logic’s CSI-2 Rx Controller Core
- Meticom’s MIPI-FPGA Bridge Chips
- Supports memory-mapped and streaming (FIFO) DMA operation
- Xilinx Kintex-7 and KC705 board
- Omnivision camera
- Seiko display
Check out this demo video along with others on the Northwest Logic YouTube channel. For more information, contact us.
Northwest Logic supports Xilinx IP Integrator tool flow
Northwest Logic, a Xilinx Premier IP partner, now supports the IP Integrator tool flow within Vivado® Design Suite for its market leading DMA Cores. The IP Integrator flow makes it easy for customers to integrate AMBA® AXI4 interface based IP seamlessly into their designs. Northwest Logic’s high performance AXI DMA Back-End Core is now fully available for customers to utilize in IP Integrator based designs. The IP Integrator support is available for all Xilinx devices including the latest UltraScale device families for Vivado® Design Suite tool release 2014.4 and above. “We are excited to make this support available for our Xilinx customers. This will make it even easier for our customers to integrate our IP into their designs. As always, our DMA IP deliveries include a complete reference design and PCIe testbench with optional Windows/Linux DMA driver support,” said Brian Daellenbach, President of Northwest Logic. Contact us for more information on this support for your new designs.
Northwest Logic Offers MRAM Controller IP compatible with Everspin’s ST-MRAM
Northwest Logic’s high-performance MRAM Controller Core has been validated with Everspin’s EMD3D064M ST-MRAM on a Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA platform and is now available for designs needing low-latency, high memory throughput using MRAM technology. Click here for Press Release.
Northwest Logic Expresso DMA Bridge Core Shipping in Xilinx KCU105 Evaluation Kit
The Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGA KCU105 Evaluation Kit is shipped with a 12 hour hardware time out evaluation netlist for the Northwest Logic PCIe DMA Bridge Core. This hardware time out evaluation netlist allows the customer to use this IP for evaluation purposes, however after 12 hours the core will time out in hardware. This time-out can be reset for another 12 hours by resetting the PCIe bus. Once evaluation of the core provided is complete, Northwest Logic can be contacted to obtain a Full Production license. Click here for more information.
High-Performance DMA Drivers Support Latest OS
Northwest Logic’s High-Performance DMA Drivers are used in conjunction with Northwest Logic’s high-performance, scatter-gather PCI Exress DMA Cores. These drivers now support the latest operating systems (OS) which includes Windows 8 and Ubuntu 14.04. The drivers are written in “C” and made available to customer in full source code. Contact us to access the complete Driver User Guide.
MIPI Face to Face
Northwest Logic and Mixel will be showing a variety of MIPI Camera and Display demos at the MIPI Alliance Face to Face Meeting in Seattle on March 12. These demos highlight our comprehensive CSI-2 and DSI Controller + PHY solution. This complete solution supports both Host and Device applications and is silicon-proven in a broad range of applications and process technologies. For more information, click on the following links: MIPI Alliance, MIPI Controllers, MIPI PHYs.
Northwest Logic Uses Blue Pearl Software’s Analyze RTL™
Northwest Logic uses Blue Pearl Software’s Analyzer RTL™ to comprehensively lint our IP Cores including CDC Analysis. As part of this process, Analyzer RTL is configured for the design rules and coding style checks appropriate to our internal HDL quality standards. Using Analyze RTL enables Northwest Logic to maintain IP core quality from a very early point in our design flow through the final stage of IP Core configuration and customer delivery. We are also currently exploring the use of newer Analyze RTL feature such as User Grey Cell™ and Advanced Clock Environment (ACE)™ for enhanced CDC analysis. For more information on Blue Pearl Software and their Analyze RTL Product, visit their website.
Side channel attacks reportedly targeted Trusted Platform Modules
Security analysts reportedly explored how to extract private encryption keys from Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) by “measuring electromagnetic signals emanating” from the chips. “This is what cryptographers call differential power analysis, a sophisticated side-channel attack in which spies use sensors or other devices to study the power consumption of a chip while it encrypts and decrypts information to extract the keys from it,” writes Motherboard’s Lorenzo Francheschi-Bicchierai.
Semiconductor market hit $336 billion in 2014
The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) recently published its final semiconductor market figures for 2014. According to WSTS analysts, the global semiconductor market showed solid growth of almost 10% up to $336 billion in 2014 – driven primarily by the double-digit growth of memory (18.2%). Meanwhile, all other major product categories achieved positive growth rates, with discrete components pegged at 10.8% and analog hitting 10.6%.
Cybersecurity Intensifies the Tension Between Banks and Retailers
Banks and retailers arene’t competitors in any conventional sense. Yet their industries are often at each other’s throat. They scuffle over the way money flows between them.