ASIC North enters analog IP market

MANHASSET, NY — Design service company ASIC North, Inc. has entered the analog intellectual property market by offering IP for analog-to-digital converters and is targeting hardened analog cores in the 180nm high-voltage technology node that is being co-developed by IBM Microelectronics and austriamicrosystems.

"As the analog/mixed signal market continues to grow at the 180nm technology node, we felt it was important to enable next generation mixed-signal designs with the IP necessary," said ASIC North President Michael Slattery, in a statement.

"Applications based upon high-voltage technologies are just beginning to proliferate in the market. Data converters are important IP components of these new systems. The analog cores announced today represent the beginnings of a new IP ecosystem."

ASIC North is a design service provider of an analog mixed-signal IP library, ASIC design capabilities, and characterization services. ASIC North has two design centers, in South Burlington, VT and Tempe, AZ.

Slattery established ASIC North in January, 2000. Prior he managed a design department in the IBM Microelectronics Worldwide Field Design Center developing PowerPC based SOCs. Together with Steve Stratz, also from IBM in Vermont, they established ASIC North's circuit and analog design capabilities.

The company has the following analog IP blocks available:

AN12512P is a 12-bit, 125Ms/s pipeline data converter that has the ability to scale power consumption by reducing precision or sampling frequency. It is aimd at GPS communications and medical instrumentation.

AN210S is a 10-bit 2MS/s SAR architecture data converter is suited for a number of general purpose applications in a mixed-signal system.