SUNNYVALE and SANTA CLARA, Calif. – December 17, 2009 – MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS) and Tensilica® Inc. today announced they are working together to accelerate SOC (system-on-chip) design activity on the popular Android™ platform. Together, MIPS and Tensilica will help companies speed the design of new home entertainment and mobile consumer products based on Android.  A joint demo of a MIPS32® processor core integrated with Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio DSP will be on display in suites that both companies have at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 7-10, 2010.

“As we continue to push Android into a broad range of consumer electronic products, we are building a complete partner infrastructure to offer a total MIPS-Based Android solution to designers of next-generation connected devices,” stated Art Swift, vice president of marketing for MIPS Technologies. “Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio DSP is an ideal audio processor because it is proven in millions of consumer devices, has low power consumption, and comes with a comprehensive library of over 60 audio codecs for just about any standard from simple MP3 to Dolby® and DTS, plus a full suite of partner solutions for audio post processing.”

“We are impressed with the roadmap MIPS Technologies has put together for Android and its vision that will enable a new generation of connected multimedia devices,” stated Mahesh Venkatraman, vice president of marketing, vertical segments, for Tensilica. “By working with MIPS, we can provide chip designers with a proven high-quality audio solution that will span connected devices ranging from mobile wireless phones to low-cost digital picture frames, high-definition DTVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray disc players and more.”

MIPS Technologies will display the jointly developed technology at CES in its suite at the Las Vegas Hilton. To schedule an appointment to see the demo, please contact info@mips.com.

Tensilica will display the jointly developed technology at CES in its suite in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, suite South 4 35567MP. To schedule an appointment to see the demo, please contact paula@tensilica.com.

About Android on MIPS

Leveraging its leadership position in the digital home, MIPS Technologies is spearheading efforts to make Android a reality for a wide range of consumer electronic devices. With Android and the dynamic open source development community around it, developers can easily and quickly create new applications, and OEMs can leverage a fast-growing set of applications for their devices. The MIPS® ecosystem around Android enables OEMs to quickly optimize Android for their specific platforms and debug their solutions across the entire software stack. For more information about the Android platform and MIPS, or to access the full source code for MIPS Technologies’ port of Android to the MIPS32® architecture, including a reference binary and documentation, please visit www.mips.com/android or emailandroid@mips.com.

About HiFi 2 Audio from Tensilica

Today’s audio requirements range from low-power MP3 playback to high-performance home-theater multi-channel playback of recorded media. Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio DSP is the only audio core that covers the complete range.. That’s why five of the top 10 semiconductor companies have picked Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio DSP for their products. For more information, see www.tensilica.com/products/audio.htm.

About MIPS Technologies, Inc.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS) is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores that power some of the world’s most popular products for the home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia markets. These include broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (408) 530-5000 or visit www.mips.com.

About Tensilica, Inc.

Tensilica, Inc. – the leader in customizable dataplane processors – is a semiconductor IP licensor recognized by the Gartner Group as the fastest growing semiconductor IP supplier in 2008.  Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of CPUs and DSPs while delivering 10-to-100-times the performance because they can be customized using Tensilica’s automated design tools to meet specific dataplane performance targets. Tensilica’s DPUs  power SOC designs at system OEMs and five out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including digital TV, Blu-ray Disc players, broadband set top boxes and portable media players), computers, and storage, networking and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica’s patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.

SUNNYVALE Calif. and SAN JOSE Calif. – December 17, 2009 – eSilicon Corporation, a pioneering semiconductor value chain producer (VCP), and Achronix Semiconductor, makers of the world’s fastest field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), today revealed that they have successfully taken the Achronix Speedster 1.5 GHz FPGA to commercial production.  Achronix selected eSilicon to leverage eSilicon’s world-class physical design and supply chain expertise. 

The first member of the Speedster family, the SPD60, is currently in production on TSMC’s 65nm G-Plus process technology. At the core of the Achronix FPGA is its patented picoPIPE acceleration technology. The core interfaces with 28 lanes of SerDes (up to 10.3 Gbps) and reconfigurable IOs including a physical interface (PHY) that supports many different interface protocols, including:  DDR1, DDR2, DDR3, SPI4, HT1, QDRII+ and RLDRAM.   

 “Working with the knowledgeable engineers at Achronix and with TSMC as our fab partner, we produced working first-pass silicon for this highly complex device,” said Hugh Durdan, COO at eSilicon.  “The production yields are excellent for a device of this complexity.  The project’s success is a testament to a high-quality work flow and efficient teamwork that is the hallmark of a true semiconductor value chain producer (VCP).”  

“We selected eSilicon for their expertise in backend implementation, manufacturing and packaging,” said Ravi Sunkavali, vice president of Hardware Engineering at Achronix.  “They delivered on their promises with excellent service and innovation.  Their team and processes smoothly and efficiently moved the product from design to right-the-first time silicon production.”   

“Achronix first time silicon success through their efforts with eSilicon is a case study of three way collaboration and the supportive role TSMC plays to bring innovative designs to market in record time.  It is a testimony to technical ingenuity coupled with sound business practices of all parties involved,” said Dr. John Wei, Senior Director, Communication Business Development, TSMC. 

About eSilicon  

eSilicon, a pioneering semiconductor Value Chain Producer (VCP), provides a comprehensive suite of design, productization and manufacturing services, enabling a flexible, low-cost, lower-risk path to volume chip production. The company delivers application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to system original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and fabless semiconductor companies who serve a wide variety of markets including the consumer, computer, communications and industrial segments. eSilicon – Enabling Your Silicon Success™. For more information, please visit www.esilicon.com.

About Achronix

Achronix Semiconductor is a privately held fabless corporation based in San Jose, Calif. Achronix builds the world’s fastest field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) capable of up to 1.5 GHz peak performance. Achronix has sales offices and representatives in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and Korea, and has research and design offices in Boston, Mass., Ithaca, N.Y., and Bangalore, India.

Wirral, UK. 17 December 2009. LDRA, the leading provider of automated software verification, source code analysis, and test tools, has integrated the LDRA tool suite and Microchip Technology’s MPLAB PIC18, PIC24 and dsPIC32/33 tool chains. Leveraging the scalability of its components, LDRA can scale the LDRA tool suite down to run application code on small processor footprints. Thanks to this integration, very low-cost and low-power PIC processors can be used in DO-178B qualified environments.

Microchip’s PIC18, PIC24 and dsPIC32/33 families are 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers, specifically designed to provide optimal functionality in a low-overhead design. The scalability of LDRA’s components enables LDRA to offer full tool suite functionality with kilobytes of RAM and tens of kilobytes of ROM. By hooking into the PIC serial I/O ports, developers gain identical output across each of these PIC families.

Similarly, the LDRA tool suite fully integrates with the PIC tool chains, allowing for compilation, linking, and programming in the PIC tool chain environment. Despite Microchip Technology’s wide range of compilers and processors, LDRA is able to abstract the tool suite uniformly to the user. Flexible licensing enables this breadth of integration to be fully covered with LDRA’s Target License Package. End users gain full use of graphical test planning and automatic test vector generation tools in the target environment, reducing the need for programmers and testers to have an in-depth knowledge of the extensive differences represented by each PIC platform.

“Microchip Technology represents a broad range of smaller footprint market,” noted Ian Hennell, LDRA’s Operations Director. “Our tool suite’s level of in-depth knowledge of the PIC’s tools and processor technology is impressive. It paves the way for successful implementations of our mutual technologies even in rigorous environments requiring DO-178B certification or similar medical or industrial standards.” 

The LDRA tool suite integration enables developers to use very low-cost, low-power PIC processors in DO-178B qualified environments. Even though Microchip Technology follows a non-ANSI standard C implementation, LDRA is able to analyze and run code on the target and extract the results to create reports identical to those from a more fully featured development environment. With access to this level of investigation, developers can design in Microchip Technology’s low impact PIC processors for qualification environments such as DO-178B level A or analogous medical and industrial qualification environments.

David Clark, software manager with Kidde Aerospace and Defense, a Hamilton Sundstrand Company, applauds LDRA for its integration with Microchip’s tools and processors. “LDRA’s customer support is superior to many customer support experiences I have had in my career. The FAEs’ in-depth knowledge of the LDRA tool and its integration into our test effort and the PIC microprocessor is very impressive. I would recommend LDRA as an integrated test tool just for the level of customer service they give.”

For more information about the integration, visit www.ldra.com/integrations.asp or e-mail info@ldra.com for more details.

About the LDRA tool suite

The LDRA tool suite has been derived from many ground-breaking testing techniques developed by LDRA. The LDRA tool suite assists with the eight primary tasks: traceability verification, design, code and quality review, unit testing, target testing, test verification and test management. Focus on these key areas is required to achieve a company’s software development and maintenance goals. The LDRA tool suite can be used by an entire project team—developers, QA managers, test engineers, project managers and maintenance/support engineers—to automate the software development lifecycle. Through the deployment of the LDRA tool suite, companies are able to deliver well-constructed, documented and tested software, and benefit from significant time, cost and operational savings. For more information on the LDRA tool suite, please visit: www.ldra.com.

About LDRA

For more than thirty years, LDRA has developed and driven the market for software that automates code analysis and software testing of safety-critical, mission-critical and business-critical applications. The LDRA tool suite is widely used in the aerospace, space and defence technology, nuclear energy and automotive industries. Through the use of the LDRA tool suite, companies ensure that their systems are built in accordance to prescribed industry standards and are durable and reliable in use. The LDRA tool suite is available for a number of programming languages over a wide range of host and target platforms. Boasting a worldwide presence, LDRA is headquartered in the UK with subsidiaries in the United States and an extensive distributor network. For more information on the LDRA tool suite, please visit: www.ldra.com.