Virage Logic intros SiPro PCI Express PHY IP

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Virage Logic Corp. has announced its new offering, a silicon and volume production-proven 40-nanometer (nm) G PCI Express Gen1/Gen2 Physical Layer (PHY).

The SiPro™ PCI Express PHY product line represents the first offering in Virage Logic’s advanced interface IP SiPro product portfolio that is a result of its collaboration with AMD announced in January 2009. This agreement grants Virage Logic the rights to license and modify certain AMD standards-based advanced interface IP that was designed for and used in the 40nm ATI Radeon™ graphics products from AMD.

“Our relationship with AMD has enabled us to accelerate the expansion of our broad product portfolio with production-proven standards-based IP for PCI Express,” said Kamalesh Ruparel, vice president and general manager, Application Specific IP (ASIP) solutions, Virage Logic.

“As the semiconductor industry’s trusted IP partner, we are committed to helping our customers reduce risk and speed new product development, particularly at the advanced nodes such as 40nm. The introduction of SiPro PCI Express PHY is yet another example of how we are delivering on that commitment.”

The Virage Logic SiPro PCI Express PHY is based on the successful implementation by AMD at 65nm, 55nm and 40nm, where it has been used in high-volume production for PC-oriented chipsets and graphics adaptors.

PCI Express standards are typically used in high-performance applications delivering large amounts of data from point-to-point, including storage, servers, networking, communications, high-end video applications and add-on PC cards.

“AMD has a long history with Virage Logic and views them as a trusted provider of highly differentiated physical IP,” said Chekib Akrout, corporate vice president, Central Engineering, AMD.

“Virage Logic has made a long-standing commitment to providing high-quality advanced semiconductor IP solutions and AMD’s internally designed, production-proven IP is the perfect complement to Virage Logic’s comprehensive product offering.”