Design & Reuse

Industry Ships 100 Millionth SoC Using Sonics SMART Interconnects

Now a Standard Component of Mainstream SoC Designs

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., - May 13, 2005 - Sonics Inc.®, the premier supplier of system-on-chip (SoC) SMART Interconnectsâ„¢, today announced that its customers have shipped 100 million SoCs incorporating Sonics’ SMART Interconnects. Sonics’ products are used in SoCs powering wireless handheld devices, such as cell phones; communications, such as laptop connectivity and home gateways; and digital consumer electronics systems, such as HDTVs and digital video recorders.

Because mainstream SoC design has reached a high degree of complexity, Sonics SMART interconnects are a critical component to connecting dozens of IP cores and supporting the intelligent services now required for optimizing on-chip data flows. As a result, the adoption rate for Sonics’ products is accelerating, and the company has moved into a growth phase, driven by customers such as Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Toshiba Corp., Samsung, and global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

“This milestone places Sonics among the top intellectual property (IP) suppliers in the semiconductor industry,” says Grant Pierce, Sonics president and CEO. “And, because our designs span a very wide range of served markets, and our adoption rate is accelerating, we expect our shipments to outpace even the well established IP suppliers in the future.”

The power and area-optimized SonicsMX™ product, introduced in October 2004, has helped speed the adoption rate of Sonics’ internal interconnects. Developed with Texas Instruments, for its OMAP2 platform, SonicsMX was designed to support the needs of SoCs for the wireless and handheld markets. By February 2005, Sonics announced Toshiba as its second licensee for SonicsMX. After releasing a new version of SonicsMX in March 2005, incorporating 128-bit data widths and support for AHB bus connections, evaluations are now underway with nearly all major wireless and handheld SoC developers worldwide. This momentum indicates that SonicsMX is rapidly becoming the defacto standard in the wireless and handheld markets.

Similarly, Sonics’ performance optimized SiliconBackplane™ SMART Interconnect is being used for SoCs developed by divisions within Broadcom, Samsung, and Toshiba to produce SoCs for a wide array of markets. SonicsS3220™ and MemMax™ products are enjoying similar results.

About Sonics

Sonics, Inc. is a leading provider of SMART Interconnects that deliver high SoC design predictability and increased design efficiency. Major semiconductor and systems companies including Broadcom, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Toshiba have applied Sonics SMART Interconnects in leading products in the wireless, digital multimedia and communications markets. Sonics is a privately-held company funded by Investar Capital, Smart Technology Ventures, TL Ventures, Easton Hunt Capital, JAFCO Ventures, and H&Q Asia-Pacific. For more information, see www.sonicsinc.com

Sonics, Inc. is a registered trademark and SMART Interconnects, SonicsMX, SiliconBackplane, SonicsS3220, and MemMax are trademarks of Sonics, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.