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Xignal Technologies Announces Corporate Launch and High-Performance Analog and Mixed Signal Technology

Available as an IP License, New Xignal IP Platform Allows CMOS System-on-Chip to Replace Exotic Material Designs

The manufacturer says . . .

ChipCenter's Paul O'Shea says . . .

Xignal Technologies AG, an Intellectual Property (IP) solutions provider for the semiconductor industry, announced its commercial launch and first product offerings. Xignalıs commercial launch follows three years of intense research and development carried out in stealth mode. The company has filed 11 Patents to-date and its core IP draws on 200+ years engineering experience. The company received over $7 million in Series A funding from Benchmark Capital and Star Ventures in December 2000. It will be looking to undertake a further round of funding in the next six months to enable it to further expand its operations. Xignal aims to become the world-leader in the rapidly emerging market for analog semiconductor IP design solutions which will be a $1 billion opportunity by 2006. Xignal is headquartered in Munich/Unterhaching, a major innovation centre for the European semiconductor industry. Although it has been operating in stealth mode, the company has already won its first customers and has signed up a number of development partners. ıItıs a really exciting time to be involved in the semiconductor industry, despite the current periodic market weakness,ı said Yousif Ammar, CEO at Xignal. ıAnalog design must rise to the technical and commercial challenge of increasing digitalisation. The analog and digital domains are converging to build very complex systems and weıre on the brink of a genuinely new era in semiconductor design. The impact of the IP model on design is analogous to the introduction of the fabless IC business model - and the pace of development and innovation will only continue to accelerate.ı ıWeıve assembled a truly world-class team of engineers at Xignal to target the rapidly emerging market for analog IP and our aim is to establish ourselves over the next years as the world-leader in this sector,ı added Ammar. Xignal focuses on providing IP solutions for use in the high-growth market segments of the communication systems industry. Its technology significantly shortens the design cycle, reducing design costs and enabling new products to be brought to market faster. Xignal today also announced its first product line ı the Xignal IP Platform. The Xignal IP Platform consists of all necessary high-performance function blocks to develop entire analog subsystems for several applications in the wireline communication market. The first implementation of the Xignal IP Platform includes a number of key differentiators for xDSL and 10 Gb/s Optical Networking designs, including the worldıs first high-performance VDSL line driver in CMOS, function blocks with highest linearity and ultra-low power consumption as well as an unprecedented level of integration for xDSL-Analog Front Ends or 10 Gb/s Physical Layer functions. Xignal licences its IP to companies which design and manufacture Integrated Circuits. It also offers consultancy services to assist with the integration of its IP with other elements of the complete Integrated Circuit design. Xignalıs IP is unique and for several applications it enables, for the first time, analogue and digital components of a communication system to be integrated on a single chip based on CMOS semiconductor technology. The Semiconductor Industry Association estimates that transistor density (i.e. chip processing power) is increasing at a 58% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) whilst designer productivity is only increasing at a 21% CAGR. This means there is a growing gap between technology and design ability. The need for the semiconductor industry to close this design gap has created an opportunity for specialist companies, such as Xignal, who develop and licence Intellectual Property. The use of ıblocksı of IP allows engineers to efficiently add functionality to designs ı effectively taking a building block approach incorporating existing, proven designs rather than creating proprietary designs from scratch. Xignal Technologies AG (Unterhaching, Germany) is a developer of high performance analog and mixed signal solutions for Systems-on-Chip integration. Allowing for cost-effective, mixed-signal designs in Silicon that rival the performance of exotic materials such as Gallium Arsenide or Silicon Germanium, the companyıs Intellectual Property (IP)-Platform is optimized for easy design integration. Xignal's technology solutions are expected to play an important role in next-generation System-on-Chip (SOC) designs solutions, especially for the wireline communications market. Xignal Web Site

This review is more about intellectual property than a new chip, so it is a little different from the usual Analog Avenue review. Itıs about a new company called Xignal Technologies who says they have an answer to the high fabrication costs for communications products. The global downturn in the telecommunications market has placed intense pressure on communication systems and hardware manufacturers to reduce costs, speed up time-to-market and produce new designs that will support the next generation of communication networks and services. Some say there is a demand for System-on-Chip (SoC) designs incorporating analog sub-systems. And they may be right. It was observed by Cadence Design Systems (Digital-Analog Convergence Executive Technology Brief, December 2001) that in the next five years nearly 75% of SoC devices will contain substantial analog circuitry. The resulting convergence will cause a shift in the ways that semiconductor design and manufacturing companies do business. Xignal certainly thinks this is where the market is going because they were founded to address this specific, growing market. The high manufacturing costs for microchips often prevents many companies from using a mix of semiconductor materials. Thus, digital and analog sub-systems are rarely integrated on a single chip. Communication systems, which process both analog and digital signals, are therefore normally made up of dissimilar components. The ability to produce a complete analog-digital (mixed-signal) system on a single CMOS-based SoC has a number of advantages, says Xignal. Even though it costs more, there are advantages of CMOS. The reduced complexity in the system design process can lead to shorter design cycles. The reduced cost of systems due to the simplification of manufacturing is ideal for high-volume mass production. The use of CMOS is itself an advantage since it is normally cheaper to integrate than semiconductor technologies that use exotic materials. Additionally, the lower power consumption with CMOS devices and the increased reliability are further advantages. Xignal is one of the first companies to produce analog sub-system designs in CMOS for use in communication systems. It licenses its Intellectual Property (IP) to SoC design and manufacturing companies who supply ICs to system hardware manufacturers. The company may be on to something because itıs no simple task to design analog sub-systems in CMOS because itıs incredibly complex and demanding. It is typically more difficult than sub-systems based on exotic materials. Additionally, only very recent developments and improvements in the CMOS technology itself have made SoC analog design viable for communication systems. Xignal is pretty confident that theyıre right and has filed 11 Patents on its IP. They have also developed a number of industry firsts such as a CMOS line driver for VDSL. The companyıs initial offerings will be core IP and Application Specific IP (ASIP). The core IP is a library of analog IPs that contain circuits needed for designing analog and mixed signal ICs. The ASIP is a complete sub-system for applications in the communications area, including a complete analog front end for xDSL, and10 Gb/s. The10 Gb/s-SerDes will be all CMOS and will have an integrated VCSEL-Driver. This will be a one-chip solution with no external components, and will integrate the VCSEL-driver, limiting amplifier, and SerDes. Other products they will be offering as IP include AD/DA Converters, PLLs/VCOs, Clock and Data Processing, and I/Os. The company says they will integrate proprietary customer IP with Xignal IP and take care of IC-manufacturing and IC-testing. Itıs an interesting concept and the market is probably ready for this technology. Let me know what you think. Go to their web site to read more about their IP and products.

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