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TSMC Adopts Azuro’s Rubix for Embedded CPU Hardening

SANTA CLARA, CA – July 7, 2010 – Azuro, Inc., the provider of advanced clock and timing optimization tools for digital chip design, today announced that TSMC has adopted its Rubix™ clock concurrent optimization capability for hardening of embedded CPU cores.

“With Rubix, Azuro continues its track record of strong technology innovation to help close the design productivity gap,” said S. T. Juang, senior director of design infrastructure marketing at TSMC. “Rubix increases clock frequency and reduces leakage power on our hardened CPU cores. And it does this without any change in sign-off methodology.”

At advanced process nodes, rising on-chip-variation and rising clock latencies are causing design timing to diverge after clock tree synthesis, even if tight skews are achieved. Clock concurrent optimization is a new approach to clock tree synthesis (CTS) which builds clocks directly to deliver the best timing and power rather than simply to deliver tight skews. Since the clocks are also built concurrently with logic sizing and placement, efficient global trade-offs can be made between fixing timing problems with clock skew and fixing timing problems with logic sizing or placement.

“Azuro and TSMC share a common belief that at advanced process nodes there is currently a gap between what the silicon can offer and what design flows can deliver,” said Paul Cunningham, CEO of Azuro. “Replacing clock tree synthesis with clock concurrent optimization is a vital change our industry needs to make to close the productivity gap at advanced process nodes. We are delighted that TSMC has adopted Rubix for hardening of their embedded CPU cores.”

 For more information on clock concurrent optimization, see the white paper at http://www.azuro.com/rubix/white-paper.html

About Rubix™

Rubix is a unified placement, sizing, and useful skew-based clock tree synthesis tool for digital standard cell-based chip designs. It increases clock frequencies by up to 25%, reduces leakage power by up to 30%, and accelerates timing closure in the back end of the design flow by up to two months.

About Azuro

Azuro is an electronic design automation company supplying software tools for use designing digital semiconductor chips. The company’s unique clock and timing optimization technologies make chips faster, reduce chip power and dramatically accelerate chip time to market. Founded in 2002, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA with R&D in Cambridge, UK, and is privately held. For additional information, visit www.azuro.com

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Innovasic Semiconductor and Micrel Partner to Provide Innovative New Industrial Ethernet Reference Platform

Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 2010 – Innovasic Semiconductor and Micrel, Inc. are pleased to announce their collaboration on a new reference platform for Industrial Ethernet connectivity. The new RapID™ Industrial Ethernet Platform uses the Innovasic fido1100® communications controller in conjunction with the new Micrel KSZ8873 Ethernet switch. The intent is to provide industrial equipment OEMs with a connectivity solution that can be configured in star, line or ring topologies. The solution includes all necessary schematics and software, including full-featured, royalty- free stacks for TCP/IP, EtherNet/IP and Profinet. The types of factory automation applications supported by Innovasic’s Industrial Ethernet solution include distributed I/O, PLC, PAC, gateways, proxies, field devices and networked sensors and actuators.

“This collaboration allows our customers to enjoy the lowest cost and fastest time to market when designing real-time Industrial Ethernet connectivity into their products,” said Keith Prettyjohns, CEO of Innovasic Semiconductor. “The unique real-time architecture of the fido1100 chip, in conjunction with the power efficiency and small footprint of the KSZ8873, delivers a full performance solution that can be rapidly designed into new products,” he concluded. 

“We are very pleased that this partnership offers customers a complete and easy to use solution for switched Industrial Ethernet connectivity,” said Wiren Perera, Micrel’s director of Ethernet Products. “It is a natural extension for Micrel’s high reliability, extended temperature and low emissions networking portfolio for the industrial and automotive segments.”

The Innovasic fido1100 and the Micrel KSZ8873 are both in volume production today. For more information on the RapID Platform Industrial Ethernet Connectivity solution, please contact Innovasic at rapid@innovasic.com or visit http://www.innovasic.com. For more information on Micrel’s Networking products please visit: http://www.micrel.com/ethernet.

Innovasic Semiconductor

Innovasic Semiconductor provides extended life semiconductor solutions for customers who have products with long life-cycles. The company’s processors, communication controllers and mixed signal devices are key components in industrial automation equipment, transportation systems, instrumentation, and medical devices. Innovasic’s newest System on a Chip (SoC) solutions enable customers to quickly integrate real-time Industrial Ethernet into their product lines at the lowest cost and with obsolescence protection. Extending the life of its customers’ products has established Innovasic as a trusted partner and an approved supplier to leading electronic system manufacturers worldwide. For more information on Innovasic Semiconductor, please visit www.innovasic.com.

Micrel

Micrel, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of IC solutions for the worldwide analog, wireless, Ethernet and high bandwidth markets. The Company’s products include advanced mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs. Company customers include leading manufacturers of enterprise, consumer, industrial, mobile, telecommunications, automotive, and computer products. Corporation headquarters and state-of-the-art wafer fabrication facilities are located in San Jose, CA, with regional sales and support offices and advanced technology design centers situated throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. In addition, the Company maintains an extensive network of distributors and reps worldwide. For more information on Micrel Inc., please visit www.micrel.com.

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