CEVA and Ignios Demonstrate Multicore DSP
SAN JOSE, Calif. and Oxford, UK - June 9, 2005 - CEVA, Inc.
(NASDAQ: CEVA; LSE: CVA) the leading licensor of digital signal processors
(DSP) cores, multimedia, GPS and storage platforms to the semiconductor
industry, and Ignios Ltd., a provider of semiconductor IP for the
multicore System-on-Chip (SoC) market, today unveiled a reference platform
that demonstrates multiple CEVA-Teak™ DSP cores seamlessly operating
together using Ignios' multicore-enabling SystemWeaver™ technology.
The demonstration platform brings together up to 16 CEVA-Teak DSP
cores, with the capability for further scalability, and the SystemWeaver
multicore management core in a representative SoC architecture. With the
SystemWeaver approach, the software developer is presented with the same
multi-threaded programming model (API) no matter how many processors are
present in the SoC, considerably easing multicore software development and
debug. The SystemWeaver IP core ensures that the resulting code executes
efficiently on the available processing resources. This approach can be
similarly utilized for CEVA-X™ or other homogenous or heterogeneous
combinations of CEVA DSP cores.
Licensees of CEVA DSP cores and platforms who adopt SystemWeaver would
benefit from the ability to easily develop and deploy multicore designs, a
growing requirement for compute-intensive cellular basestations and high
channel density VoIP gateways. With SystemWeaver, code can easily be
developed on a single processor and then quickly retargeted to all of the
devices using dynamic and flexible scheduling policies for different
classes of task and processing resource.
The platform, developed in merely two weeks by Ignios using the ARM®
RealView® Electronic System Level (ESL) tools with MaxSim™ technology,
demonstrates the ability to easily explore and then efficiently program a
multicore DSP architecture to achieve the best possible
price-performance-power characteristics for an application.
"We are seeing increasing demand for our advanced DSP IP solutions in
multicore implementations," commented Moshe Sheier, CEVA director of Third
Parties and Technical Marketing. "The SystemWeaver approach provides an
extremely efficient way for our customers to get the best out of combining
multiple CEVA cores on the same SoC. Ignios will be an important addition
to our CEVAnet partner program."
"We are delighted to be working with CEVA to enable their customers'
multicore SoCs," stated Rick Clucas, Ignios CEO. "SystemWeaver has been
designed to support homogeneous and heterogeneous multicore SoCs. This
demonstration platform clearly shows that SystemWeaver is compatible with
an industry leading DSP architecture."
Ignios will be demonstrating the CEVA-based system model at the 42nd
Design Automation Conference, Anaheim, Calif., June 13-16, at booth 261 http://www.dac.com/.
About SystemWeaver
SystemWeaver addresses the software and hardware challenges presented
by the proliferation of all multicore architectures - simple and complex -
in the embedded chip market. The SystemWeaver API provides a unified
abstraction layer for complex multicore devices. This abstraction allows
embedded systems companies to develop and debug multicore applications
more effectively, improving time to market. The key underlying system
management and communications functions are implemented natively in a
SystemWeaver IP core that is integrated on-chip. SystemWeaver unlocks the
full performance of the multicore hardware, with significant cost, power
and performance benefits that maximise product competitiveness.
SystemWeaver release v1.0 is available now and consists of the
parameterisable, synthesisable SystemWeaver IP core and the SystemWeaver
API. A SystemC model of the core and reference models of
SystemWeaver-enabled SoCs are also provided.
About Ignios Ltd.
Ignios was established in 2003 to develop and market products that
enable the real-time on-chip system management of multicore SoC devices.
Ignios raised a total of $3.8 million in a first round of private
financing early in 2004. The funding round was jointly led by Alice Lab
and BTG. Further information on Ignios can be found at http://www.ignios.com/.
All company or product names are the registered trademarks or
trademarks of their respective owners.
About CEVA, Inc.
Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., CEVA is the leading licensor of digital signal processor (DSP) cores, multimedia, GPS and storage platforms to the semiconductor industry. CEVA licenses a family of programmable DSP cores, associated SoC system platforms and a portfolio of application platforms including multimedia, audio, Voice over Packet (VoP), GPS location, Bluetooth, Serial Attached SCSI and Serial ATA (SATA). In 2005 CEVA's IP was shipped in over 115 million devices. CEVA was created through the merger of the DSP licensing division of DSP Group and Parthus Technologies. For more information, visit ceva-dsp.com.
A PDF copy of this press release is also available here