LSI Unveils 28 nm SoC Design Platform

With a broad portfolio of intellectual property (IP) blocks and an advanced design methodology for custom system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution, LSI Corp. (News - Alert), has unveiled a 28 nm custom silicon platform. The platform leverages multiple generations of custom silicon expertise and enables OEMs to build highly differentiated solutions for next-generation data center, enterprise and service provider networking applications.

According to LSI, the 28 nm platform uses the TSMC 28HP high-K metal gate process technology to realize unprecedented levels of SoC integration with significantly greater performance and lower power dissipation. It includes a broad family of pre-qualified IP blocks, high-speed serializer-deserializers (SerDes), protocol solutions, high-performance and high-density memories, a 10/100Base-T Ethernet PHY, Tarari (News - Alert) deep packet inspection engines, StarCore digital signal processors (DSP) and microprocessors including ARM, MIPS and PowerPC processors.

 Compared to the previous generation, the 28 nm design libraries offer power savings of up to 40 percent at double the density and up to 25 percent higher performance allowing customers to meet performance demands while simultaneously reducing product and cooling costs, said LSI.

In a statement, Sudhakar Sabada, senior vice president and general manager of Custom Solutions Division, LSI, said, "The incredible growth of content in networking infrastructure demands highly integrated SoC solutions that meet performance and power dissipation challenges.” 

LSI said that the 28 nm platform leverages multiple generations of experience in designing IP blocks for networking applications and is structured to meet the requirements of next-generation networking systems. The IP blocks provide much-needed design margin to cope with harsh real-world environments, while an advanced design methodology including hierarchical design and test insertion capabilities enables faster time-to-market, added LSI.

Design kits for the 28 nm platform are available now. Initial 28 nm custom silicon designs are currently in development with multiple customers and are expected to sample in early 2011, said the manufacturer.