Arteris

The Network On Chip (NoC) concept is recent, about 10 years old, and the first implementation of commercially available NoC IP has happened in 2006. Should we drop the concept so quickly after it has been introduced? In fact, I don’t think so… But we could brain storm and imagine the new functions that could be implemented within or around the NoC, benefiting from the existing NoC architecture. Ever increasing SoC complexity generates ...

I have blogged in 2011 about the Arteris-Sonics case, initiated by Sonics, claiming that Arteris NoC IP product was infringing Sonics patent. In this article, we have seen that the architecture of Sonics interconnects IP product was not only older but also different from Arteris’ NoC architecture: the products launched initially by Sonics, in the 1995-2000 years, were closer to a crossbar switch than to a Network-on-Chip. Sonics management probably realize that the crossbar switch ...

I have mentioned NoC adoption explosion during the last two years, illustrated by the huge growth in revenue of a company like Arteris: if we consider only revenue coming from upfront license sales (not including royalties), Arteris growth has been geometric between 2011 and 2010, passing from 18 to 39 customers, which is more than 2X. This penetration has been consolidated in 2012, as Arteris enjoys more than 50 customers. To summarize:
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It seems that Ateris vs. Sonics war, initiated by Sonics in 2010 on the legal battle field, is now continuing on the marketing field, as far as I am concerned, I prefer the latter, as I am an engineer and not a lawyer, and I must say that playing in the marketing allow both companies to extract the most attractive features of their products. Such a battle is good for design engineers and decision ...

Network on Chip (NoC) technology is probably one of the most fascinating new concepts that has been developed and is implemented in real chips. NoC can be integrated into various System on Chip (SOC), targeting several market segment: Video Processing, Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Networking, Multimedia (digital TV), but the vast majority of Application Processor SoC, targeting mobile segment (smartphone or media tablets) do include a NoC. ...

I have talked about Virtual Prototyping a SoC including FlexNoC Network on Chip IP from Arteris by using Carbon Design Systems set of tools in a previous post. A blog, posted on Carbon’ web, is clearly explaining the process to follow to optimize a fabric (FlexNoC) successively using the different tools from Carbon. Bill Neifert, CTO with Carbon Design Systems introduces the SoC context: “Fabric optimization is a prime area for ...

Arteris, founded in 2003, is the inventor and leading supplier of network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions. Can we say that the company is still a start-up? I would say yes, as their flagship product, FlexNoc (Network on Chip IP function) was a completely new concept when it was introduced. As for every disruptive technology, it takes time for the new concept to be, at first understood by the potential customers, then tested and evaluated, and finally sold. I would say yes as well when looking at the 2011 to 2010 year to year growth rate of 115%. Sales of Arteris' unique FlexNoC IP product have driven the growth of the company ...

The need for Network-on-Chip (NoC) has appeared at the time where chip makers realized that they could really integrate a complete system on a single die to build a System-on-Chip (SoC). At the early times (1995-2005), the so-call NoC IP suppliers were in fact proposing a crossbar switch, a pretty old concept initially developed for Telecom applications where you had to switch between multiple users, every signal (user) having the same priority. ...

LLI Specification has been officially released by the MIPI Alliance, at the occasion of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, this year. As indicated by the name, the round-trip latency of the LLI inter-chip connection is fast enough for a mobile phone modem to share an application processor's memory while maintaining enough read throughput and low latency for cache refills. Sharing the same DRAM device means the wireless handset integrator can save real estate printed circuit board (PCB) space and create a thinner smartphone, or implement additional ...