Embedded Processor Watch

Editor: Jim Turley

In This Issue:

• Motorola Shifting Chip Production to Foundry Partners
• IDT Debuts Two System-Logic Chips
• Galileo Announces System Logic for PowerPC
• Industry Resources: Can You Finish 700 Pages in Real Time?
• New Embedded IC Announcements

Motorola Shifting Chip Production to Foundry Partners

As part of its most recent reorganization, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) has collapsed its product organization and profoundly altered its chip-making plans. Semiconductor operations deflated from 23 product groups into just four. Some were reorganized, some were sold, some were eliminated. Among the fallen were optoelectronics, DRAMs, chemical sensors, gate arrays, FPGAs, and power electronics.

The four surviving groups are now organized around transportation, wireless, networking, and imaging/entertainment. (Discrete components are handled through a fifth independent group.) The transportation group oversees MCore; StarCore DSPs are part of the wireless group; imaging owns 68K/ColdFire; and PowerPC is the responsibility of the networking group.

Under the new plan, called Standardize & Simplify, Motorola will consolidate its fabrication processes and rationalize its design rules. It will sell off, rather than refit, older fabs that do not match its current 8-inch production processes. Motorola has already closed plants in California, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, the Philippines, and elsewhere. The plan parallels Intel's famous Copy Exact policy, where semiconductor plants are interchangeable.

Standardize & Simplify extends beyond Motorola's own fab equipment. By next year, 30% of production is slated to go to external foundries. Over the next three years, Motorola will shift half of its production to foundries. This is a huge strategic redirection for a company that currently farms out only 6% of its production.

Regarding the much-ballyhooed copper process, Motorola vowed to ship more chips using copper interconnect in 1999 than any other vendor, including IBM.

Motorola will not build any new fabs "for some time," according to company executives, and the next one it does build will run huge 300- millimeter wafers. It's likely such a plant will be a joint venture with AMD or Siemens (both of which have process-level agreements with Motorola), possibly located in Dresden, Germany.

To reconcile the seemingly conflicting goals of standardizing its semiconductor process and pushing work out to foundries, Motorola will "engage in partnerships" with foundries around the world, outfitting them for Motorola-compatible processes. Such Motorola-assisted foundries are hoped to be interchangeable with Motorola's own plants. Chips made at one location will be manufacturable at any other.

This scheme represents a Faustian bargain for the foundries. They must accept and adapt to Motorola's processes. On the other hand, they will (collectively, at least) take 50% of Motorola's mammoth production.

IDT Debuts Two System-Logic Chips

After creating a new line of embedded MIPS processors, IDT is now rolling out core-logic chips to support them. The RC64145 and RC32134 are for 64-bit and 32-bit chips, respectively, and both include an SDRAM controller, PCI interface, multichannel DMA controller, timer, UARTs, parallel port, and interrupt logic. The major difference between the two chips is the width of their CPU bus: 64 bits for the 64145 and 32 bits for the 32134. The '145 also supports the faster, 66-MHz PCI transactions.

More subtly, the 32-bit chip gates memory directly onto the host processor's data bus, while on the '145, data passes through the part. This is because the 64-bit SysAD bus common to workstation-class MIPS CPUs does not support data sizing, high-impedance signals, or variable slave timing. IDT's new 32364 processor bus, in contrast, was designed specifically to support these features, making it easier to integrate into typical embedded systems.

Samples of both are available now; production is in 2Q99. Prices are a reasonable $20 ('134) and $41 ('145) in 10,000-unit quantities. IDT's 64145 is a dead ringer for Galileo's GT-64120 but without the I2O support nor the ability to split the 64-bit PCI into two buses. At about $20 less expensive, that's probably a fair tradeoff in IDT's favor.

Galileo Announces System Logic for PowerPC

Galileo Technology (http://www.galileot.com) has extended its line of a half-dozen system-logic chips for MIPS processors with a new pair for PowerPC chips. The GT-64130 and '131 are similar to Galileo's existing core-logic chips but work with the PowerPC 603e, 740, 750, and 860- series processors from IBM and Motorola.

Both the '130 and the '131 add a 64-bit SDRAM interface, a DMA controller, I2O-compatible interrupts, and one ('131) or two ('130) 32- bit, 66-MHz, PCI buses. On the '130, the two PCI interfaces may be ganged to create a single 64-bit interface. The so-called Universal PCI interfaces accept both 3.3-V and 5-V logic levels and comply with CompactPCI hot-swap requirements.

Galileo's two new products move it into competition with other PowerPC core-logic suppliers V3 (see Embedded Processor Watch #5) and Tundra. Tundra's QSpan and PowerSpan products (see Embedded Processor Watch #25) have a lead in the market among PowerPC users while Galileo has a track record with MIPS customers. Galileo's prices of $54 ('131) and $65 ('130) are certainly higher than commodity PC chip-set prices, but competitive for embedded systems, where there are few alternatives.

Industry Resources: Can You Finish 700 Pages in Real Time?

Addison-Wesley publishing and Phar Lap Software (it's the name of a racehorse) have teamed to produce a book-and-CD combination titled "Real-Time Programming: a Guide to 32-Bit Embedded Development." Authors Rick Grehan (formerly of Byte and Computer Design), Robert Moote, and Ingo Cyliax have developed a resource and tutorial for dseveloping real- time operating systems and applications for 32-bit system. The book is bound with a "light" version of Phar Lap's x86 tools.

The $50 book (ISBN 0-201-48540-0) is available from bookstores or trhough the publisher by calling 800.822.6339 or visiting http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-201-48540-0.

New Embedded IC Announcements

ADSP-2141 (Analog Devices) DSP chip for VPN networks transfers IPSec- encrypted data at OC-3 rates of 155 Mbits/sec, with hash/encryption throughput of 640 Mbit/s. Price: $65/10,000; Samples: Now; Production: 2Q99; Call ADI at 800.262.5643.

PIC16HV540 (Microchip) Eight-bit one-time programmable microcontroller with an on-chip regulator, 33 single-word instructions, 20-MHz single- cycle operation. Price: $1.34/1,000; Production: 1Q99; Call Microchip at 602.786.7668.

AD7894 (Analog Devices) ADC comes in 8-pin package, has 14-bit precision, +/-10V signal capability, single 5V supply, and 160-ksample/s throughput rate. Price: $7.95/1,000; Production: Now; Call ADI at 800.262.5643.

S3049 (AMCC) Laser driver for OC-48 DWDM and SONET/SDH applications has auto laser-power control, safety alarms, and internal positive power source. Price: $85/100; Production: Now; Call AMCC at 619.450.9333.

S3053 (AMCC) Quad multiplexer can switch OC-3, -12. -24, or -48 data signals in DWDM, SONET/SDH, and other high-speed systems. Price: $92/100; Production: Now; Call AMCC at 619.450.9333.

S3054 (AMCC) Dual 2?2 crosspoint switch fans out or multiplexes high- speed data and clock signals for OC-3, -12, -24, or -48 systems. Price: $86/100; Production: Now; Call AMCC at 619.450.9333.

THS7002 (Texas Instruments) A 70-MHz amplifier for ADSL receiver applications with programmable gain, independent shutdown, +/-4.5V to +/-16V supply range. Price: $5.79/1,000 Production: 1Q99; Call TI at 800.477.8924.