Infineon Broadens Availability of Advanced Real-Time Controller Core; Announces Release of C166S In Synopsys DesignWare® IP Library

Oct 1, 2001 | Market News

Munich, Germany – October 1, 2001 – Infineon Technologies (NYSE/FSE: IFX), a leading provider of advanced microcontrollers and licensable core processors for embedded applications, today announced that it will make the C166S real-time core available as a component in DesignWare®, the industry-leading Intellectual Property (IP) Library from Synopsys. Release of the C166S as Star IP in the Synopsys library broadens market access to this popular processor architecture, which is already used in system designs that have shipped hundreds of millions of units for automotive, computer peripheral, industrial and wireless communications applications.

Infineon, which has offered the C166S V1 core as licensable IP since its release last year, is working with Synopsys to add an AMBA AHB interface for compatibility with the DesignWare on-chip bus solution and additional AMBA-based DesignWare IP. Licensees of the C166S can elect to work with AMBA-based IP, as well as an extensive set of peripherals and IP modules utilizing the Infineon X+Bus interface.

“Infineon and Synopsys have a long history of successful collaboration in IP development and design programs, and we are very pleased to be one of the lead companies in the expansion of the DesignWare Library into the high-value IP market,” said Dr. Reinhard Ploss, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infineon’s Automotive and Industrial Business Group. “This extension of our long partnership will provide system designers with access to a market-leading architecture for cost-effective, high integration microprocessor subsystems.”

Designed specifically for true real-time, embedded applications, the C166S is a powerful and flexible core processor for System-on-Chip (SoC) custom integrated circuits. When implemented in 0.18 µm CMOS technology, the core occupies less than 1.5 mm2, has power consumption of less than 2 mW/MHz, and can run at speeds up to 80 MHz. Since the core is instruction set compatible with all standard microcontrollers based on the 16-bit C166 architecture, current stand-alone designs can be brought to higher levels of integration while re-using existing application code. System designers also can rely on extensive support from third-party programming and development environment providers, many of which have up to a decade of experience working with the C166.

The C166S balances real-time performance, including the ability to execute most instructions in a single clock cycle (25 ns at 80 MHz), with integrated support for many Digital Signal Processing (DSP) functions commonly used in communications. For example, the core includes a Multiply And Accumulate (MAC) unit that can be used to efficiently implement functions such as Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter functions. The C166S also incorporates level one On-Chip-Debug-Support (OCDS), to support cost-effective system emulation even in multi-core SoC designs.

Further information on the C166S V1 is available under www.infineon.com/c166.

The C166S will be added to the DesignWare library in the fourth quarter of this year. As a Star IP core, the C166S conforms to the guidelines and methodology of the Reuse Methodology Manual (RMM) which ensures ease of use and reuse of IP for SoC designs. DesignWare packages the IP in a coreKit, which includes the configurable simulation and timing models, and a verification environment. To gain access to the fully synthesizable core, DesignWare users will need to license the C166S from Infineon. All design and implementation support will be provided by Synopsys.


About Synopsys DesignWare IP Library


DesignWare is the world's leading IP library, in use by more than 25,000 designers. It provides designers with Implementation IP consisting of more than 140 technology-independent components and Verification IP consisting of Bus-Functional Models, Bus Interface Models, and more than 18,500 other verification models, plus MemPro for memory model generation. DesignWare also provides access to high-value IP from leading Star IP providers. Information for DesignWare can be found at www.synopsys.com/designware/.

About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2000 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.28 billion with about 29,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com

Information Number

INFAI200110.004e