ChipX Announces New Development Kit with PCI Express PHY for CX6100 Structured ASICs

Update: GigOptix, Inc. Announces Acquisition of ChipX (November 10, 2009)

Use of Same PCIe PHY in Prototype Environment, Structured ASIC Family Simplifies Migration to Volume Production; Speeds Development

Santa Clara, Ca – June 05, 2006 – ChipX, the Structured ASIC leader, announced today a new development kit for the CX6100 family of Structured ASICs. By integrating the same PCI Express (PCIe) PHY used in ChipX’s CX6100 Structured ASIC family with a PCIe development board and FPGA, the development kit offers designers a new opportunity to lower their design risk, reduce verification time and dramatically shorten their development cycle.

ChipX’s kit differs from other PCIe development kits available today which use PHYs supplied by third parties that are not available in IP form for later integration.

“Once developers build their PCIe prototype in an FPGA, they must spend precious development time re-qualifying their design to migrate to lower cost Structured ASIC or Standard Cell implementations,” said Wouter Suverkropp, Director of Strategic Marketing at ChipX. “By allowing developers to design and verify their initial PCIe prototype with the same PHY they will use in their final Structured ASIC or Standard Cell implementation, our new development kit helps users lower their design risk and accelerate time-to-volume production.”

Simple Migration

The ChipX CX6100 Development Kit provides an ideal prototyping environment by supplying a development board with a CX6159 Structured ASIC containing the ChipX PCIe PHY and PIPE Gasket Logic and an Altera Stratix FPGA. The PCIe PHY supports high bandwidth applications through both x1 and x4 lane operation. To initialize and control PHY parameters, the kit includes an I2C port and a Windows-based GUI supplied on a CD-ROM. Designers can program a synthesizable PCIe controller, available from ChipX or a third party vendor, and customized logic, into the FPGA using standard Altera tools.

The board comes in the same dimensions as a standard PCIe card and can be easily operated for system integration, software co-development and validation testing through a standard PCIe edge connector. Once prototype development is complete, designers can seamlessly map their custom logic, the PCIe controller and PCIe PHY into a single CX6100 Structured ASIC without the migration issues normally associated with an FPGA-to-ASIC conversion.

ChipX CX6100 Family

Introduced in October, 2005, the CX6100 PCI Express Structured ASIC family brings together a proven PCIe PHY and a configurable and synthesizable controller into a single optimized Structured ASIC platform. The CX6100 family is fabricated in ChipX’s fine-grain and silicon-proven X-Cell architecture, which is designed to deliver higher gate densities and lower device costs than comparable programmable devices in smaller geometries. Gate counts range from 240K to 1.8M ASIC gates and memory densities run up to 1.8 Mbits. The product family supports operating frequencies up to 300 MHz. Four on-chip, configurable, low-jitter PLLs support output frequencies from 10 MHz to 1 GHz.

Price and Availability

The CX6100 PCI Express Development Kit with PCI Express PHY is sampling immediately. It will be in full production by 3Q06. Cost is $3,995 in single quantities, including hardware and software. ChipX is also offering a PCIe controller in IP form as an option.

For more information about ChipX families of Structured ASICs, please visit www.chipx.com.

About ChipX

ChipX, Inc. is a pioneer and leading manufacturer of late-stage programmable application-specific integrated circuits, or Structured ASICs. The company's innovative, patented technology consolidates wafer production tooling, reduces time-to-market and minimizes the total cost to profit. ChipX Structured ASIC technology is widely used in consumer equipment, computing peripherals, communication systems, industrial control, medical equipment, instrumentation and military/aerospace systems.

Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, ChipX is a privately held corporation, founded in the U.S. in 1989. A subsidiary, ChipX (Israel) Ltd., performs Research & Development. Investors include Elron Electronic Industries, Ltd. (NASDQ: ELRN), VantagePoint Venture Partners, Wasserstein Venture Capital, Newlight Associates, Parker Price Venture Capital, UMC, Needham Capital Partners and Insite Capital.