PMC licenses Fulcrum's self-timed crossbar switch

PMC licenses Fulcrum's self-timed crossbar switch
SAN MATEO, Calif. — In what may be the first publicly acknowledged intent to use asynchronous, self-timed logic in a commercial product, PMC Sierra announced Monday (Dec. 15) that it has licensed asynchronous-logic crossbar switch technology from Fulcrum Microsystems.

PMC (Burnaby, B.C.) will use the technology as an on-chip SoC interconnect, in place of conventional bus architectures. The announcement comes after more than a year of joint development, in which Fulcrum (Calabasas Hills, Calif.)implemented on its switch fabric synchronous-logic interface ports that are compatible with PMC's existing bus interface standards.

Work was also done to insure that the Fulcrum crossbar, which will be supplied as a hard macro, will fit into PMC's existing design flow and foundry relationships.

Bob Nunn, Fulcrum president and CEO, described the deal as part of a long-term working relationship, not a single-product IP license deal. He would not comment on whether PMC intended to use Fulcrum's proprietary asynchronous-logic design tool chain to add self-timed circuits to PMC IP blocks.

PMC designs a wide range of CPU and complex functional cores that could benefit from the use of self-timed logic. More than a year ago Fulcrum signed a MIPS license in preparation for an asynchronous CPU core design.

Fulcrum will continue its own product plans, and expects to have silicon for the first of a series of blade-oriented switch chips back from foundry in February, 2004. This will put the company in both the fabless semiconductor and the IP businesses with its unique crossbar switch design.