Sonics Announces Support for AMBA 4 Specification

Sonics’ Products Compatible With New Protocol

MILPITAS, Calif.-- March 11, 2010 --Sonics, Inc.®, announced that its on-chip communications solutions will support phase one of the new AMBA® 4 protocol unveiled this week by ARM. This ensures that chip designers who currently use the AMBA 3 specification will have an easy migration path to AMBA 4 products as design upgrades are rolled out. ARM indicates further enhancements to the specification will be available later this year.

Sonics is a premier supplier of intelligent on-chip communications solutions and helps designers eliminate memory bottlenecks and network challenges in complex, multi-layer embedded designs—including those found in mobile broadband, digital entertainment, home networking, wireless and automotive applications. Sonics’ products provide support for AMBA protocols, including AMBA 3 AXI™, AHB™ and APB™.

The new AMBA 4 specification provides increased functionality for media-rich, on-chip communications, broadening its applicability for bandwidth-intense SoCs. The specification maximizes performance and power efficiency for complex designs.

“It’s important to ARM to have early adopters, such as Sonics, show their support for the new AMBA 4 specification,” said Mike Dimelow, Director of Marketing, Processor Division, ARM. “Partners like Sonics are important in enabling the rapid adoption of AMBA 4 to the benefit of all designers. Their support will help ensure that AMBA remains the de facto standard for on-chip communications for the foreseeable future.”

“We want to give designers peace of mind that AMBA 4 specification-compatible products will be available when they need them as they set their next-generation design initiatives,” said Jack Browne, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Sonics. “It was natural for Sonics to partner with ARM to offer early support for such a critical design standard.”

About Sonics

Sonics, Inc. is a pioneer of network-on-chip (NoC) technology and today offers SoC designers the largest portfolio of intelligent, on-chip communications solutions. Sonics’ products optimize memory access, seamlessly manage on-chip network traffic, accelerate system performance and reduce power consumption in SoCs with advanced voice, data and video features—including those found in home entertainment, networking, wireless, and mobile devices. With a broad array of silicon-proven IP, Sonics helps designers eliminate memory bottlenecks associated with complex, high-speed SoC design, streamline and unify data flows and solve persistent network challenges in embedded systems with multiple cores. As the leading supplier of on-chip communications networks for the embedded market, Sonics has enabled its customers to ship more than 750 million units worldwide. Founded in 1996, Sonics is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. with offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.sonicsinc.com and www.sonicsinc.com/blog.