MegaChips completes design center agreement with Tensilica

USA: MegaChips and Tensilica Inc. completed a design center agreement that will enhance research and development (R&D) and expand marketing collaboration, enabling large-scale integration (LSI) product customers to get advanced functionality with shorter lead times.

On April 1, 2013, MegaChips is going to integrate its business operation with Kawasaki Microelectronics Inc., its consolidated subsidiary, for further expanding LSI business, and this agreement with Tensilica is one of the important measures to reinforce MegaChips R&D.

“Our partnership with Tensilica enables us to procure Tensilica’s outstanding IP cores with ease and accelerate advanced SoC development,” said Gen Sasaki, director, officer and GM of Division No. 2 at MegaChips. “This lets us deliver superior LSI products with shorter lead times to both domestic and international customers who constantly seek advanced functions.”

Using Tensilica’s customizable processor technology, MegaChips will develop original cores that are useful not only for voice and/or speech processing and codecs but also voice recognition, image processing and gesture recognition.

The MegaChips products developed based on Tensilica’s customizable dataplane processors (DPUs) are used in the family of image processing and recognition chips for the network security camera market, which is one of the fastest-growing markets with around 20 percent annual growth rate.

“The electronics and semiconductor industries are facing both longer development time and higher development cost with smaller process geometries, hence the need to partner with LSI design and service companies and programmable IP companies to speed up time to market and reduce development risk,” said Steve Roddy, VP of marketing and business development at Tensilica.

“Our partnership with MegaChips will accelerate the development of new technology and supply cutting-edge products that will fulfill future demand.”