Oki Develops µPLAT™ Platform

µPLAT™ Virtually Halves System-on-Chip LSI Development Time

µPLAT^™ offers a total environment for the development of system-on-chip LSI system software and hardware, including mobile telecom, terminal devices and PC peripherals. Silicon Platform Architecture (SPA) solutions such as this have been a major focus of Oki's semiconductor operations since 1998.

Custom LSI development can take about six months, after which about three months are needed to draw up a board and load a real-time operating system (RTOS), and another four months are required to develop application software. With µPLAT^™, however, everything can be completed in just about four to five months, a huge saving of time.

µPLAT^™ incorporates the basic features common to any system, including CPU periphery, memory architecture and operating system, together with software that verifies the operating system's operation and performance. This enables customers reliably and quickly to design optimized hardware and software for high-performance System-on-Chip ICs.

"Customers are looking for an on-chip means of developing features fast and efficiently," said Yuki Ushida, general manager of Oki's Market Development Department. "They want a platform for designing optimal hardware and software, readily handles common interfaces, and simplifies the development of proprietary features. We are aiming to provide a total service to enable rapid SoC LSI delivery, by enabling customers to use the µPLAT^™ to combine their differentiated technologies with Oki technologies such as telecommunications."

µPLAT^™ has basic platforms for silicon logic, software/middleware and support:

• The silicon logic platform offers the distinct advantage of incorporating standard protocols, such as AMBA and common RTOS interfaces. It includes a CPU supplied by UK-based Advanced RISC Machines Limited (ARM), an external memory controller, timer functions, and an interrupt controller. Expandability is possible with the AMBA^™ advanced high-performance bus (AHB) interface, which enables easy connection of hardware.

• The software/middleware platform includes µITRON and other RTOSs. Expandability is possible by simply using middleware with the standard interface.

• The support platform includes a Software Development Tool kit, a software simulator, a board-level emulator, and an LSI-level simulator.

The first product to go on sale will be the µPLATcore-7C, featuring the ARM7TDMI^™ CPU core. The µPLATcore-7C ASIC Design Kit will ship in April and the µPLATcore-7C Prototyping Board will ship in June.

Oki forecasts sales of LSI products based on the µPLAT^™ platform totaling 200,000 units monthly in fiscal 2000. This is expected to rise to 1.5 million units monthly by fiscal 2002.

Oki will continue to develop hardware /software / support platforms in response to market demands. The company will also continue to develop high-end solution platforms based on the ARM9^™ family, as well as develop and comprehensively support for a variety of packages, including USB, IEEE, Bluetooth and other telecom hardware, plus text-to-speech and voice-recognition middleware.

Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With more than 20,000 employees worldwide, Oki Electric provides customers with top-notch products and technologies for telecommunication systems, information systems and electronic devices through its corporate slogan "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society." Oki's all manufacturing facilities are ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified.

Notes:

• ARM7TDMI, AMBA, and ARM9 are trademarks of Advanced RISC Machines Limited.
• µPLAT is a trademark of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.