Arasan Chip Systems First to Release SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Device Controller IP

Create High-Performance UHS-I Add-on Cards With Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Controller

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Nov. 16, 2009 -- Arasan Chip Systems, Inc. ("Arasan"), a leading provider of Intellectual Property (IP) Cores, announced today the availability of the World's first Secure Digital SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Device Controller IP. This combo IP is compliant with the latest SD, SDIO specification v3.0. Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Controller supports Ultra-High Speed I (UHS-I) operation and can address up to 2TB of memory.

The SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo IP can be used to design high-performance add-on cards or embedded modules that combine memory and I/O functions such as WiFi, GPS, LTE, WiMax, to design location aware functions, multi-media accelerators. The growing popularity of smartphones, with their increased compute and display capability, make them an ideal platform to integrate location aware functionality. Analysts estimate that service providers will derive revenue of over $2 Billion in 2009 from location aware services alone. In addition, new categories of consumer electronics such as netbooks, portable media players and hand-held gaming consoles require increasing amounts of storage and high-speed connectivity, yet are form-factor constrained. Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo controller is best suited to add advanced features to these mobile platforms.

Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo controller supports SDSC, SDHC and SDXC memory capacities with a peak bandwidth of 832 Mbps (UHS-I). Designers can leverage rapid advances in NAND Flash technology to bring high-performance expansion cards quickly to the market.

"Mobile platform designers are eager to support interactive, data intensive functions such as location based intelligence in their platforms," said Prakash Kamath, Vice-President of Engineering at Arasan. "By integrating Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo controller, designers can access high-capacity memory and high-bandwidth I/O functions which are necessary to support these features."

"The rapid proliferation of HD video capable mobile platform opens up a myriad of new applications capable of being integrated with the base platform," said Somnath Viswanath, Product Marketing Manager at Arasan. "Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Controller provides designers sufficient memory and I/O bandwidth to design innovative features into these platforms."

Arasan's SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Controller IP supports all UHS-I operational modes -- DDR (50MBps) and SDR (up to 104MBps). The controller natively handles all SD Memory and SD I/O 3.0 commands. The IP can be scaled to support up to 7 I/O functions allowing SDIO enabled product to support myriad of complex I/O function simultaneously. It supports asynchronous interrupts and suspend/resume function so as to improve performance of multi-function cards. Host processor overhead is further reduced by the bus master capability together with scatter and gather DMA. The IP implements all standard data protection schemes as defined in the standard.

Arasan provides a "Total IP Solution" for its SD/SDIO 3.0 Combo Device Controller IP Core consisting of RTL source code, synthesis scripts, test environment and documentation all backed by world-class customer support.

About Arasan

Arasan Chip Systems Inc. (www.arasan.com), based in San Jose, CA, USA, is a world-leading supplier of SoC Intellectual Property solutions. Arasan delivers technology-leading Bus IP solutions like MIPI, SD/SDIO, USB, PCI, Ethernet, MMC, CE-ATA, CF+, NAND and more, to the global electronics market. Arasan's Total Solution Approach includes RTL IP cores, Verification IP (VIP), Portable Software Drivers/Stacks, Hardware Development Kits, Validation Platforms, Protocol Analyzers and Design Services. Arasan's IP Solutions portfolio enables designers to accelerate their development and minimize the risks associated with production of complex system-on-chip (SoCs). Arasan provides a competitive advantage through a combination of domain expertise, silicon proven IP, hardware tools, software stacks, and customization services.