This is dated, but I didn't see it posted so...
Motorola and Tundra Join Forces to Develop Next-Generation High Speed Communications Technology
Industry leaders will develop advanced RapidIO-related interconnect products to support network transmission rates of hundreds of gigabits per second in a single system.
Kanata, ON and Austin, TX, October 12, 2000 - Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (TSE:TUN), a leader in System Interconnect for the Internet and communications infrastructure market, and Motorola, Inc. Semiconductor Products Sector (NYSE:MOT), the world's largest producer of embedded microprocessors, today announced they have formed an alliance to develop high performance interconnect products that increase the efficiency and capacity of Motorola's Smart Networks Platform. The alliance will fuel ongoing strong growth by Motorola and Tundra in the communications semiconductor market. This market is expected to exceed $50 billion U.S. in revenue by 2003, according to the market research firm Dataquest.
Tundra and Motorola will cooperate in the design of PowerPC and RapidIO-related core logic technology that can be incorporated into the Tundra System Interconnect products and Motorola's communications processors, including the PowerPC family of host processors, the PowerQUICC family of integrated processors, and the C-Port family of network processors. As a result, Motorola and Tundra will enable communications infrastructure vendors in the wireless, wireline, and data communications industries to bring networking products to market faster, at less cost, and with much higher performance. As part of the multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement, Motorola will provide Tundra with funding to develop these new RapidIO core logic products. Motorola and Tundra will cooperate in promoting these technologies for use in PowerPC and RapidIO-based systems.
"Our alliance with Tundra is another key to Motorola continuing our leadership position of supplying communications processors to world class communications infrastructure vendors," said Daniel Artusi, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Motorola's Networking and Computing Systems Group. "Tundra has a long history of providing System Interconnect chipsets in support of Motorola's line of communications processors. This next-generation System Interconnect technology will enable Motorola and Tundra to strengthen our current market positions."
The communications industry has a great need for enhanced intelligence throughout the fabric of the entire network. As demand for bandwidth and sophisticated services skyrocket, current proprietary interconnect products on and between system components are being pushed to their limit. This agreement allows Motorola and Tundra to promote the rapid evolution to development of systems based upon open standards that fulfill these greater bandwidth and service demands.
"Motorola's willingness to develop these core logic intellectual property blocks with Tundra underscores our industry-leading position in this market," said Adam Chowaniec, Tundra Chief Executive Officer. "Tundra has enjoyed a strong relationship with Motorola for several years. Through this alliance, Tundra will accelerate the rate at which we introduce new products and establish ourselves as the de facto leader in System Interconnect."
The high performance interconnect products developed by Tundra and Motorola will be based on RapidIO, the emerging high-speed interconnect architecture standard for the networking market. Supported by Motorola and other communications equipment giants such as Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, and Lucent Technologies, the RapidIO interconnect architecture provides greater bandwidth, lower cost, and faster market delivery for next-generation embedded networking products in comparison to conventional bus protocols.
RapidIO is an electronic data communications standard for linking chips on a board and boards on a backplane. It eliminates a critical bottleneck in networking equipment: the speed at which components inside embedded systems communicate with each other. Current communications equipment is restricted to transmission rates of hundreds of megabits per second. In comparison, RapidIO will provide chip-to-chip and board-to-board communications at performance levels of up to 64 gigabits per second per port with an aggregate of hundreds of gigabits per second in a single system. The breakthrough architecture is an open standard compatible with the most popular communications processors. Tundra and Motorola are founding members of the RapidIO Trade Association, established to drive the adoption of the RapidIO Interconnect architecture. More information about RapidIO is available at: www.rapidio.org.
Tundra System Interconnect is the technology to connect components and subsystems in almost any embedded system. It includes chips on a board and boards on a backplane. System Interconnect is a vital enabling technology for the networked world. The convergence of voice, video, and data traffic, the need for more secure communications, and the exploding demand for high-speed network access are putting communications infrastructure vendors under intense pressure to provide faster, well-managed bandwidth that also integrates smoothly with existing technology. Tundra System Interconnect helps these vendors address their customer needs. It enables them to build standards-based network equipment that can scale to multi-gigahertz speeds and beyond, and also integrate with existing infrastructure. |
