Posted: 8/3/98

Programmable-logic vendor Xilinx Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) and its AllianceCore partner CoreEl MicroSystems Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) have announced a core solution targeting the second-generation 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet media-access-controller (MAC) market. The companies also announced CoreEl is shipping an FPGA-based Ethernet 10/100 MAC evaluation board exclusively for Xilinx FPGAs.

The core solution includes the Xilinx FPGA-based 10/100 Ethernet MAC transmitter and receiver cores and a complete testbench for system verification.

The company said target applications for the core solution include Ethernet network interface controllers (NICs) and switches, along with Ethernet-based instrumentation, network management, and monitoring tools.

CoreEl said it ported the CS-1100 Ethernet MAC core, which is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3 standard 10/100, to Xilinx's XC4000 FPGA family earlier this year.

CoreEl has also developed an evaluation board that emulates a standard PC-based Ethernet NIC card. The board can be used to test the functionality of the Ethernet MAC cores with customer-specific logic.

The board includes two Xilinx XC4028EX FPGAs: one implementing the MAC core and related features, while the other implements the host interface and related circuitry. The current version of the card has an ISA bus interface for a host PC.

All of the products are available directly from CoreEl MicroSystems. Pricing for the Xilinx versions of the Ethernet cores starts at $12,500 each and the evaluation board is $5,000.

CoreEl also offers full technical support and customization services at additional cost for customers wishing to integrate or modify the cores for use in Xilinx devices.

Data sheets can be seen at http://www.xilinx.com/products/logicore/alliance/coreel/coreel.htm or by visiting http://www.coreel.com.

IC manufacturer Microchip Technology Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.) and mixed-signal ASIC developer and supplier Seattle Silicon Corp. (Bellevue, Wash.) have signed a technology agreement that will allow each company to produce integrated products leveraging their complementary technologies.

Seattle Silicon is licensing Microchip's proprietary PIC16C5X 8-bit RISC microcontroller architecture and processor core to develop and sell customer-specific ICs based on its mixed-signal circuit technology. Microchip will also provide foundry services to Seattle Silicon.

In return, Microchip will use Seattle Silicon's ASIC and analog design capability to develop additional analog and mixed-signal products.

The agreement represents the first time Microchip has granted a license to its PICmicro architecture.

Steve Sanhgi, Microchip president and chief executive officer, said the agreement will give Microchip customers an authorized source for incorporating the PIC16C5X PICmicro core.

Microchip boasts its PIC16C5X architecture is based on a 12-bit-wide instruction set, combining high performance, low cost and small package size.

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