10 silicon vendors endorse $2 BOM cost savings in handsets

SUNNYVALE, USA: Arteris Inc., the inventor and leading supplier of network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions, announced that the Chip to Chip Link (also known as C2C) product jointly developed by Texas Instruments Inc., and Arteris has been licensed by 10 system on chip vendors serving the mobile and wireless application processor and modem markets.

C2C is the first instance of an industry standard allowing shared memory between two chips, such as a mobile phone applications processor and a mobile phone modem. The 100ns round-trip latency of the C2C connection is fast enough for the modem to share the application processor’s RAM and to maintain enough read throughput and low latency for cache refills. This enables the phone manufacturer to remove the modem’s dedicated RAM chip from the phone’s bill of materials (BOM), saving a minimum $2 in cost per phone.

In addition to the $2 cost savings for a single LPDDR2 RAM, removing a RAM saves up to 115 square millimeters of printed circuit board (PCB) space and reduces mobile phone system complexity.“C2C is an optimal solution for low latency mobile phone modem connection to applications processors because it allows us to fully reuse the same DDR pads that are available for connecting the standard dedicated modem RAM,” said Stefan Wolff, Division VP and GM, Smart Phones and RF at Intel Mobile Communications GmbH (IMC).

“Using the Chip to Chip Link allows IMC modems to connect to a wide selection of mobile phone application processors from multiple vendors, allowing our customers to choose the best products for their needs whilst saving cost and footprint without compromising performance.”

“TI believes that split architecture provides the industry’s most optimal environment for innovation. We worked with Arteris on C2C and pushed its evolution in the MIPI Alliance to help our customers turn split architecture into something advantageous regarding modem connection. In the end, OEMs and ecosystem partners alike benefit from the growth of a cost-effective thin modem market and the opportunity to combine those modems with the best-in-class OMAP applications processor,” said Remi El-Ouazzane, VP and GM, OMAP Platform Business Unit, TI.

In addition to Intel and Texas Instruments, other publicly announced C2C licensees include Samsung, LG, ST–Ericsson, HiSilicon Technologies, and Via Telecom.

“Although licensees initially consider C2C for mobile phone DRAM memory sharing, we are seeing new use models such as coprocessor connectivity to quickly meet market windows for new standards like LTE,” said K. Charles Janac, president and CEO of Arteris. “The low cost, low gate count, low latency, and low power of C2C make it ideal for a multitude of chip-to-chip connectivity use cases.”