EDA/IP Weekly Roundup – July 5th

7/5/2012 10:16 AM EDT

This is a roundup of news or activities in the past few days that may be of interest to people.

Elliptic Technologies has joined the ARM TrustZone® Ready Program to provide system wide embedded security based on Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) to mobile and home entertainment devices. As a partner of this program, Elliptic will join other industry leaders to develop solutions for chip and design manufacturers based on a strong security foundation which is a pre-requisite for deploying large-scale trusted applications and services.

Ultratech a supplier of lithography and laser-processing systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices, has announced that it has acquired the rights to a collection of patents from IBM - these include fundamental patents in packaging such as C4 bumping, Ball Grid Arrays, lead-free solders and 3D packaging. Representing both U.S. and foreign patents, the portfolio includes claims directed at methods of making, at compositions and at structures of semiconductor devices. This acquisition strengthens and broadens Ultratech’s offerings to facilitate advanced packaging at the lower device nodes.

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has announced that it has licensed IBM technology to expedite the development of the foundry's next generation 20nm CMOS process with FinFET 3D transistors. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will license its 20nm process design kit and FinFET technology to UMC so the foundry can use these technologies in order to accelerate the availability of these processes for UMC customers.

Cadence has collaborated with Brite Semiconductor on the integration of the Cadence® DDR Soft DLL PHY intellectual property (IP) into the design ecosystem for manufactured devices from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). Specifically, Brite and Cadence plan to integrate the DDR PHY IP with I/Os for implementation on SMIC 130nm, 65nm, 55nm, and 40nm process technologies. Brite Semiconductor plans to tapeout a test-chip platform, with the memory subsystem IP, providing valuable insight into this ultra low-power, high-performance solution which is ideal for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronic products.

MIPS has entered into a patent and technology license agreement with Broadcom Corporation. For $26.5 million plus other consideration, Broadcom has been granted a non-exclusive worldwide license, under patents owned or licensable by MIPS. Additionally, Broadcom has been granted a multi-year license extension to its current MIPS® architecture and core licenses for MIPS-Based™ products, plus other consideration.