EDA/IP Weekly Roundup – August 29th

8/29/2012 10:55 AM EDT

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

Sonics has announced that Intel has licensed key IP components from Sonics portfolio of system IP for use in its SoC platforms -- which incorporate the Intel® Atom™ processor. Intel will work with Sonics to integrate a wide array of third party IP onto its SoC platform. This collaboration will help to increase performance, maintain competitive time-to-market schedules and offer superior platform design methodologies for tablets, netbooks, smartphones, as well as other Intel mobility and consumer products.

IMS Nanofabrication AG has announced that TSMC has joined IMS’ multibeam mask writer development collaboration, adding its support to that of collaboration founding members Dai Nippon Printing Co, Intel and Photronics. The purpose of the collaborative program is to develop an electron multi-beam mask writer for use in advanced mask lithography applications with the goal of meeting lithography specifications below 10nm while achieving high throughput requirements. The program is nearing the completion of a proof-of-concept phase, and the upcoming phase of the collaboration will focus on the design and construction of an alpha and beta version of the multi-beam mask writer.

Amkor Technology has said that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a favorable ruling in Amkor's appeal in its patent infringement case against Carsem before the U.S. International Trade Commission. In the underlying ITC proceedings, the Administrative Law Judge had ruled that certain Carsem Dual and Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) Packages infringe certain claims of one of Amkor’s patents (U.S. Patent No. 6,433,277) relating to MicroLeadFrame® (MLF) technology. However the ITC subsequently ruled that the infringed claims were invalid and terminated the proceedings. The Federal Circuit Court has now reversed the ITC’s determination of invalidity, and remanded the matter to the ITC for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today finalized standards that will accelerate the proliferation of Bluetooth®wireless technology sensors that measure speed and cadence for running and cycling activity. Made possible by Bluetooth v4.0 low energy technology, the recently approved standards will enable the next generation of Bluetooth Smart fitness devices. Companies can now quickly implement Bluetooth Smart sensors in sports devices to instantaneously transmit data such as running cadence, stride length, total distance, or cycling speed, distance, and pedal cadence to Bluetooth enabled devices like smart phones, sports watches, and cycling computers.

Samsung Electronics has joined ASML’s Customer Co-Investment Program for Innovation and has committed to contribute EUR 276 million to ASML’s research and development of next generation lithography technologies over five years. This completes the program, as the target for aggregate R&D funding commitments of EUR 1.38 billion has now been met. Samsung has also committed to invest EUR 503 million in a 3 percent ASML equity stake under the same general terms as the other program participants. Under the Co-Investment Program, which was announced on July 9, 2012, ASML will accelerate the development of key lithography technologies needed to extend Moore’s Law, notably Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. These technologies will benefit the entire industry, and will enable smarter, more powerful, more energy-efficient and cheaper electronic devices for consumers. The investment program is now closed with Intel, TSMC and Samsung will each acquire ASML shares, equal to an aggregate 23 percent minority equity stake in ASML for EUR 3.85 billion in cash.

ARM and Synopsys have signed a multi-year agreement that expands Synopsys' access to ARM intellectual property (IP). The two companies will broaden their collaboration to enable SoC designers to optimize the power and performance of ARM technology-based SoCs with Synopsys Galaxy Implementation Platform and Discovery VIP, while reducing cost and decreasing time to market. Building on previous EDA tools and ARM Cortex-A15 processor license agreements, this new agreement provides Synopsys with access to a range of Cortex processors, including technology needed to implement ARM big.LITTLE™ processing, ARM Artisan physical IP, POP technology optimized for Cortex processor implementation, as well as CoreLink™ interconnect and AMBA 4 ACE system IP.

Altera has announced its OpenCL (Open Computing Language) for FPGAs Early Access Program (EAP), enabling customers to get a first look at Altera’s OpenCL for FPGA solution. Leveraging the open standard dramatically simplifies FPGA development by enabling teams to design their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework when targeting FPGAs. As part of the EAP, customers will be able to preview Altera’s OpenCL solution and receive access to an OpenCL for FPGA training course, collateral and technical demonstrations.

Xilinx has announced the acquisition of embedded Linux solutions provider PetaLogix. As Linux solutions become must-haves for a growing number of embedded applications relying on Xilinx All Programmable technologies, the addition of PetaLogix and their PetaLinux technology strengthens Xilinx's capabilities and commitment to customers to provide the best Linux solutions possible.

Delft, a Netherlands based MAPPER Lithography company producing maskless e-beam direct write lithography, has announces the signing of a deal for a financing round of € 80 million. The round is led by the Russian investment fund RUSNANO who will invest € 40 million. Another € 40 million will be contributed by current shareholders including ADP Industries, Hoving & Partners along with Dutch high-end technology suppliers such as Technolution and DEMCON and innovation credits from AgentschapNL.

Open-Silicon has launched a 40G/100G Ethernet media access controller (MAC) IP and 40G/100G physical coding sublayer (PCS) IP, co-developed with CoMira Solutions, Inc. The co-developed IP, sold by Open-Silicon as stand-alone IP or as a part of an Open-Silicon customer-specific product development, is compliant with the IEEE 802.3ba standard. When combined with Open-Silicon's industry-leading Interlaken, Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) or DDR3 controllers, the high-performance Ethernet IP offers a complete IP solution for networking applications.

Evatronix and M31 Tech have announced the certification of a complete USB 3.0 solution and its immediate availability in the market. The solution passed all compliance tests run by the official USB body, USB-IF and can now officially bear the name of a USB-certified product.