Sonics Named as Early Supporter for Phase Two of the AMBA 4 Specification

Serves as Advance Reviewer for New interface Protocol; Existing, Future Products to Support Latest AMBA 4 Specification

SAN DIEGO, Calif., DESIGN AUTOMATION CONFERENCE -- June 6, 2011 -- Sonics, Inc.®, today announced that it will support AMBA 4 AXI Coherency Extensions (ACE™), the second phase of the AMBA® 4 protocol unveiled this week at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in San Diego.  Phase two of the AMBA 4 specification will include new hardware support for cache coherency extensions, barrier support and virtual memory additions that together simplify the programming of multicore systems while increasing performance. Sonics will support phase two of the AMBA 4 protocol in both existing and future products, including SonicsSX and SonicsLX as well as products slated for announcement later this year.  Sonics’ new StudioXE™ system-level design tool announced this week will also support phase two of the AMBA 4 interface, enabling designers to easily utilize the increased configurability enhancements of AMBA 4 sockets in their complex SoC designs.  In addition to Sonics’ on-chip network products, the company’s MemMax family of advanced memory schedulers can leverage features of the AMBA 4 protocol to deliver increased memory subsystem performance.

“Sonics has long been an early and supportive adopter of the AMBA specification, and has played an important role as an advance reviewer in phase two of AMBA 4,” said Mike Dimelow, director of marketing, Processor Division, ARM.  “Partners, such as Sonics, are essential to help encourage the rapid proliferation of these key de facto standards. Its continued support to ARM and the ARM ecosystem will help drive SoC innovation.”

Sonics is the world’s number one supplier of on-chip communications networks and innovative memory IP, and helps designers eliminate memory bottlenecks and network challenges in complex, multicore embedded SoCs for mobile, digital entertainment, home networking, wireless and automotive applications.  Sonics’ products provide complete support for all AMBA protocols, including AMBA 3 AXI™, AHB™ and APB™.

 “It’s critical for our customers to see that Sonics supports the most advanced interface standards as they prepare for their next-generation designs and roadmaps,” said Jack Browne, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Sonics.  “Over the years, we’ve worked closely with ARM to ensure early adoption of their latest AMBA specifications, and have served as a key contributor and partner in the review process. This early alignment with ARM reinforces our commitment to quality and interoperability across the design community, and provides assurance that Sonics will be among the first to market alongside ARM –delivering the industry’s most advanced on-chip communications functionality and increased efficiencies.” 

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 for home entertainment, wireless, networking 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, Sonics has enabled its customers to ship more than one billion units worldwide.  Founded in 1996, Sonics is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. with offices worldwide.  For more information, please visit www.sonicsinc.com, www.sonicsinc.com/blog