LSI Logic Offers Comms Processor as Low Cost ASIC

LSI Logic Corp. has introduced the first semiconductor product in its RapidChip family of semi-custom devices intended to offer a lower cost option to full custom ASIC designs.

The configurable communications processor, dubbed StreamSlice, supports 20Gbit/sec. full-duplex throughput.

“Communications

system designers can take advantage of the density, performance, and customization benefits of cell-based ASICs combined with the low-development costs and fast time-to-market advantages of FPGAs,” said Rick Marz, executive VP at LSI Logic.

The RapidChip device is based around a pre-manufactured chip in which all silicon layers have been built, leaving the top five metal layers to be completed with customer IP.

According to the supplier, one of the applications for the device is to create multiple sets of embedded high-speed serialiser/deserialisers (serdes) for industry standard interfaces including, SPI4.2, XAUI, Gigabit Ethernet, Fiber Channel and InfiniBand.

“The proven, pre-placed high-speed interfaces used in StreamSlice can eliminate from six to nine months of design effort,” said Tom Sandoval, VP of communications marketing at LSI Logic’s comms and ASIC division.

StreamSlice also offers 3.3Mbit of embedded memory and 3 million usable gates of customer-configurable logic.

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