Amphion IP cores enable single-chip ADPCM solution for speech coding in OC-192 systems

Belfast, N. Ireland & San Jose, California (January 24, 2002) - Amphion Semiconductor Ltd., the leading provider of semiconductor intellectual-property for multimedia, data security, wireless and broadband communications, today announces enhancements to its communications family of plug-and-play IP core solutions for multi-channel ITU-compliant ADPCM speech coding in 130nm ASIC and high-density FPGA integrated circuit designs.

The CS4000 family of ADPCM cores delivers up to 3470 simplex, or 1735 duplex, speech channels for cost-effective implementation of high-end telecommunications systems. For example, in metropolitan area networks (MANs) adhering to OC-192 and requiring 129,024 duplex voice channels, Amphion can enable a single ADPCM ASIC that requires only 75 instantiations of the CS4590 (3M logic gates total, less than 35 nanowatts per channel) along with 72MB of system memory. In contrast, a high performance DSP solution would require over 2000 instantiations at approximately 4 milliwatts per channel plus memory.

"Amphion core solutions for ADPCM easily scale to high-end applications and cost just a fraction of a DSP-based solution," observed Stephen Farson, Amphion?s VP Engineering. "An OC-192 system would require about 2000 of the best DSPs available - the rack-level complexity alone makes that approach undesirable even before you consider the higher component costs, higher power consumption, and statistically greater risk of component failure. Core-based system-level integration plays an important role in a market where providers are trying to deliver higher bandwidth within the confines of limited space, power grid capacity, air conditioning and budgets."

IP Cores for Telecommunications
A single instance of the CS4190 core, with capacity for 1,532 duplex voice channels, can readily be combined with Amphion CS3720/CS3780 5GHz Wireless LAN Baseband cores in the design of a compact wireless DECT base station with channel count comparable to OC-1.

"Amphion ADPCM cores also work well in the latest programmable logic technologies," said Dr. Jean-Paul Heron, Senior FAE, Amphion. "Recently a customer designed a very cost effective OC-3 system around two pairs of CS4180 cores (single-clock cycle architecture) to achieve 2048 duplex channels on two Xilinx Virtex-II? XC2V1000-4 devices."

Amphion cores are developed with 'plug-and-play' design in mind. Deliverables include pre-optimized netlists, 'C' models, RTL test benches, synthesis scripts, databook and users guide. For convenience, Amphion includes a test bench generator that compliments the 'C' model to simplify configuration of complex ITU test data. Amphion provides one full year of free technical support with every core licensed.

CS4000 Family: Features and Benefits
The Amphion ADPCM CS4000 family cores provide:

* Multi-standard support for ITU standards: G.721, G.723, G.726, G.726a, G.727, G.727a
* Channel counts ranging from 16 to 3470 - multiple instantiations support flexible design optimization up through OC-768
* Typically less than 9 gates per simplex channel - excellent cost and power savings
* Single-Port RAM for ASIC versions - cuts design size in half for high channel counts
* A memory-less architecture (CS4590) - enables further optimization of architecture for very high channel counts
* On-line configurability between G.726a and G.727a - switch between linear and logarithmic compression rates on-the-fly
* Optimized netlists for ASIC and programmable technologies - facilitates prototype and migration roadmaps
* Microprocessor and DSP independence - no software programming means that scarce MIPS can be applied to valued-add system functions

ADPCM Applications
* DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications)
* DCME (Digital Circuit Multiplication Equipment)
* Voice portals (speech-enabled web access)
* Digital audio storage
* Video-conferencing
* Personal communications service
* Voice-mail systems
* Digital cellular mobile communications
* Digital mobile radio
* Encrypted telephony
* Commercial aircraft telephony
* Internet phone systems - Voice-Over-IP (VoIP, VoN, etc)

Product Availability
These products are available now. OEMs and systems designers interested in Amphion ADPCM cores for telecommunications ASIC and FPGA projects can contact Amphion directly.

About OC-192
SONET defines a technology for carrying many signals of different capacities through a synchronous, flexible, optical hierarchy. The base signal is referred to as synchronous transport signal-level 1 (STS-1) which operates at 51.84 Mbps. Higher-level signals are integer multiples of STS-1 (for instance, STS-3 is 3 times STS-1 = 155 Mbps). A designated optical carrier (OC) corresponds to each STS level (OC-3, OC-48, OC-192, etc). Thus, OC-192 can support 10-GB data loads. ITU provides asynchronous standards defining the number of voice channels corresponding to STS/OC carrier capacity.

About Amphion
Amphion is the leading supplier of application-specific cores for IP-based System-on-a-Chip (SoC) integrated circuit designs for multimedia, data security, wireless and broadband communications. Amphion delivers high-performance solutions for video and image compression, advanced encryption, and speech and channel coding with a comprehensive range of silicon- optimised products. Using proprietary techniques for the direct-mapping of processing functions and algorithms into hardware, Amphion develops and licenses semiconductor intellectual-property (SIP) cores that are close to optimal in terms of power, cycles, and area - typically 1 to 3 orders of magnitude better than competing solutions. Amphion cores operate standalone, or by direct interface to industry-standard RISC and DSP processors, and can be easily migrated through different generations of fabrication technology, thus preserving engineering investments in SoC design. Amphion is a privately held company with corporate headquarters and engineering in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and worldwide sales and marketing headquarters in San Jose, California, USA. Amphion was formerly known as Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd, or ISS. For more information, visit http://www.amphion.com

Notes to Editors
Amphion, The Amphion logo, and "Virtual Components for the Converging World" are trademarks of Amphion Semiconductor Ltd. All other brand names or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Press Contacts
David Mann, Amphion
Europe/Japan: +44 (0) 28 9050-4040
marcom@amphion.com

Ron Sailors, Amphion
North America: (408) 441-1248
marcom@amphion.com