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Technology Stocks : LSI Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jock Hutchinson who wrote (17380)	3/15/1999 8:45:00 AM
From: Paul Lee	Respond to of 25814

LSI Logic Achieves Breakthroughs in Mixed-Signal Integration Company Also Improves Industry-Leading Gate Densities in 0.18-Micron G12 Technology MILPITAS, Calif., March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI) today unveiled important advancements in the integration of mixed-signal functions onto its digital CMOS 0.18-micron(TM) G12 process technology (0.13-micron L-effective). The company also disclosed that it can integrate more than 95,000 gates per mm2, or four times the density of its previous generation 0.25-micron technology. The integration of mixed-signal cores has now become a requirement for complete systems on silicon and, as such, LSI Logic has moved swiftly to bring these new mixed-signal offerings to its G12 technology. In addition, the density of G12 provides a leading-edge technology process vehicle for this new mixed-signal capability. G12 will be sampling in the 3rd quarter of 1999. The total solution for mixed-signal now includes: -- enhanced transistor technology optimized for lower voltage and higher performance mixed-signal solutions -- precision passive components available for die size cost and component reduction . -- mixed-signal methodology that integrates seamlessly into LSI's FlexStream(TM) design environment for easy instantiation of mixed-signal solutions -- mixed-signal design kit which incorporates third-party tools for the design and verification of mixed-signal cores. "LSI Logic's mixed-signal team has 15 years of expertise in mixed-signal design, modeling and characterization," said Bruce Entin, vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "We are leveraging our systems level experience and design flexibility in the G12 mixed-signal product portfolio, together with our leading-edge G12 densities, to enable the design of optimized, cost-effective solutions that meet our customers needs." "The system-on-a-chip market is expected to grow to $195B by the year 2005 and 71% of these new designs will have mixed-signal content, up from 8 percent in 1996," said Handel Jones, President of International Business Strategies. "LSI Logic's proven track record in the successful integration of mixed-signal cores and their ability to provide integrated solutions for some of the high- growth market segments make LSI Logic well-positioned to address the key segments of the system-on-a-chip market." G12 Process Two new mixed-signal transistors have been added to LSI Logic's G12 0.13-micron (Leff) process which allow the integration of mixed-signal cores powered from a wide range of supply voltages. At supply voltages as low as 1.8V or 2.5V, the issues of headroom and signal swing are minimized, resulting in the optimum power/performance point. High-speed, high-performance mixed-signal cores powered from full 3.3V supplies can also be supported for applications such as direct IF conversion for set-top boxes. In addition to the mixed-signal specific transistors, designers can implement solutions using G12 digital cell libraries, where cell architectures and process design rules have been optimized for both porosity and cell density, resulting in an overall gate density of 95k gates/mm2. The ability to utilize precision passive components as mixed-signal building blocks has also been enhanced in the G12 process. Improved resistor technology and optimal metal-metal capacitors allow designers to realize high resolution data converters and high order integrated filters for signal processing functions. System designers will now see significant board-level cost savings on external components Methodology LSI Logic's mixed-signal methodology flow integrates seamlessly into the FlexStream design environment to ensure a predictable instantiation of mixed-signal cores into customer ASICs, for design solutions ranging from single data converters to complete mixed-signal systems. The core deliverables include timing information for digital interfaces, application notes, VHDL and Verilog behavioral modules and test vectors, and these are provided to LSI Logic's design centers worldwide to facilitate drop-in of "black box" mixed-signal cores. Design Kit The lack of one commercially available design/verification tool to meet all of LSI Logic's mixed-signal requirements, has driven the development of a mixed-signal design kit for use by LSI's internal mixed-signal design team. The designers can now choose from a suite of third-party design/verification tools and use them interchangeably depending on the requirement of the mixed-signal solution. Tools from such vendors as Avant!, Mentor, Analogy and Synopsys are supported on a common platform for design and verification of mixed-signal solutions ranging from the cell-level up to the system-level. Mixed-signal Expertise LSI Logic has offered mixed-signal cores in its CoreWare(R) library since 1993. These have been successfully integrated into a wide range of applications from digital still cameras to digital TV decoders to LSI's recently announced single-chip CDMA base-band processor. The announced enhancements of LSI's capabilities open up exciting new application areas for system-on-a-chip integration. "This unprecedented capability significantly expands our horizons for integrated mixed-signal solutions," said Ronnie Vasishta director of ASIC marketing for LSI Logic. "We can now anticipate addressing integrated solutions in demanding application areas such as xDSL, direct IF conversion for satellite broadcast, and servo controller and read channel applications for disc drives. In addition, these capabilities will enhance the power, performance and cost of solutions already in production today," continued Vasishta. "This capability is part of the continuing drive at LSI to offer customers cost-effective solutions for systems on a chip in their application areas."