Link: http://www.icjournal.com/articles/2008/20080129_flash.htm

SoC Platform Enables Rapid Deployment of High-Performance NAND Flash System Designs

PALO ALTO, Calif., January 28, 2008 — Denali Software, Inc., a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property (IP), today announced the availability of its system-on-chip (SoC) platform product FlashPoint™. The FlashPoint platform is a complete system design that provides a PCI Express (PCIe) interface to high-performance NAND Flash memory. The platform uses a sophisticated design configuration engine that enables the system to be tuned for optimal performance with differentiating features for a range of products, including PC cache modules, solid state drives (SSD), and ExpressCard™ devices. FlashPoint provides a complete hardware design, software stack, and all necessary drivers to ensure fast time to market for products requiring high-performance interface to NAND Flash memory.

"NAND Flash systems are becoming increasingly complex as the diversity of applications drives the need for a specialized, flexible, high-performance platform solution," remarks Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst at iSuppli. "Current commodity solutions will not meet the future market needs."

Denali's new FlashPoint platform includes support for the emerging Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface (NVMHCI) standard, an effort led by Dell, Intel, and Microsoft, which provides a standard software programming interface for nonvolatile memory subsystems. The NVMHCI interface is used by operating system drivers to access NAND Flash memory storage in applications such as hard drive caching and solid-state drives. One such example is the ReadyBoost™ and ReadyDrive™ features of the Windows Vista® operating system, which would use the NVMHCI interface to speed PC system performance and reduce overall power consumption.

"As one of the initial founders of the NVMHCI working group, Microsoft always has its finger on the pulse on emerging technologies," states James Borden, Industry Strategist at Microsoft. "I am pleased to see the first announced plan for implementation of the emerging industry standard. Denali has been an active participant and contributor of NVMHCI. Denali's support for NVMHCI with this platform should enable system performance and feature enhancements. It is our belief that flash will have a significant impact to the PC and other system architectures."

The FlashPoint platform also supports wide range of flash devices from various memory vendors, including devices which conform to the specifications developed by the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) Working Group, an industry organization dedicated to simplifying integration of NAND Flash memory into consumer electronics (CE) devices, computing platforms and industrial systems.

"Denali has been an active supporter of the ONFi initiative which provides a standardized NAND component interface that not only simplifies design support for a broader range of NAND components, but also eases transitions to future NAND generations," said Knut Grimsrud, ONFi chairman and Intel Fellow. "Product releases compliant with the ONFi standard, such as Denali's new flash platform, pave the way for broad adoption of standards-based flash solutions."

The FlashPoint platform leverages Denali's proven Databahn™ IP technology for PCIe and NAND Flash in an advanced hardware architecture, built from the ground up for high performance and reliability. An advanced configuration infrastructure automates the process for tuning and verifying the design for application specific performance, and speeds overall deployment time.

"This high-performance PCIe-based NAND Flash platform is a natural extension of our unique expertise in memory and interface technology," said David Lin, vice president of marketing for Denali Software. "We believe our enthusiastic focus on driving the NAND Flash ecosystem through participation in standards, like ONFi and NVMHCI, gives us a distinct advantage when it comes to understanding the intricacies and bandwidth variables which affect performance as well as the subtleties of how PCIe and other technologies need to mesh in order to create a truly revolutionary PCIe to NAND Flash cache solution."

"We are constantly updating and refining our flash memory technology and roadmaps to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible combination of features and performance to meet evolving market needs," said Robert Pierce, senior director, Flash Products at Denali Software. "FlashPoint is a great example of Denali's commitment to technology development as we have significantly reduced customer risk and increased system performance through an integrated and flexible HW/SW platform approach to PCIe-based NAND controller designs. With the rich feature set, OEMs and semiconductor firms have the flexibility to confidently select unique and differentiating features, such as performance, encryption, and array management for their system."

FlashPoint Platform Availability

The Denali FlashPoint platform is commercially available now. For more product specific info, please visit http://www.denali.com/flashpoint/.

For more information, contact:

Editorial Contact:
Pierre Golde
Denali Software Inc.
650.461.7262
pgolde@denali.com

High-Quality Verification IP Assures Compliant and Low-Risk Implementation for Industry-Leading Ripcord Single-Chip CMOS Ultra Wideband (UWB) Products

PALO ALTO, Calif., January 8, 2008 — Denali Software, Inc., a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property (IP), today announced that Staccato Communications has adopted PureSpec™ verification IP (VIP) to verify compliance with the latest protocol specifications and validate interoperability on their next generation single-chip all-CMOS WiMedia UWB ICs. Staccato's verification engineers chose Denali PureSpec VIP for its high-quality and seamless integration into their design and verification environment, providing a reliable and comprehensive framework for accelerating design cycle times.

"There is an increasing proliferation of devices that demand high bandwidth connectivity, and Staccato's Ripcord® UWB products deliver high data rate, lowest cost and longest battery life, enabling a cable-like wireless equivalent and new usage models," remarked Steven Larky, vice president of Engineering at Staccato Communications." In order to achieve these goals in a very aggressive single-chip all-CMOS implementation, Denali was our first choice for their expertise and high-quality IP. We have reaped significant benefits from Denali's high-quality models and their reliable verification IP as it has helped us find critical bugs in our RTL as well as several bugs in our vendor supplied RTL IP, thus minimizing our overall time-to-market."

Staccato's Ripcord product family is comprised of single-chip, all-CMOS solutions for WiMedia UWB applications such as Wireless USB, Next-Generation Bluetooth, and WiMedia IP. Ripcord's high-level of integration minimizes design risk, lowers system cost and accelerates customers' time-to-market by consolidating all hardware and software components necessary to support multiple simultaneous protocols at 480 Mbps.

"Denali understands the challenges facing design and verification teams, including reaching time-to-market timelines while minimizing the impact on engineering resources," states David Lin, vice president of marketing at Denali Software. "Our customers, such as Staccato, confidently use our high-quality verification IP so that their designs can meet protocol compliance and significantly shorten the verification time required to bring their product to market."

About Denali PureSpec

Denali's PureSpec verification IP is the most widely used product for verifying functionality, compliance and interoperability of standard interfaces at the pre-silicon stage of chip or IP core development. PureSpec verification IP includes a configurable bus functional model (BFM), protocol monitor, and complete assertion library for all components in the topology, including the host and one or multiple devices. PureSpec additionally provides an integrated data generation engine to help drive defined, pseudo-random bus traffic at all layers. A cumulative coverage database capability ensures that the overall test plan sufficiently exercises the design. For more info about PureSpec and its benefits in your next design, visit: www.denali.com/products/vip.

For more information, contact:

Editorial Contact:
Pierre Golde
Denali Software Inc.
650.461.7262
pgolde@denali.com

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Link: http://www.eetasia.com/ARTICLES/2008JAN/PDF/EEOL_2008JAN02_EMS_DT_TA.pdf?SOURCES=DOWNLOAD

Industry-Leading Hardware and Software Products Simplify MLC Flash Memory Subsystem Design

PALO ALTO, Calif., January 2, 2008 — Denali Software, Inc.,
a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property (IP), today announced it has licensed its
NAND Flash solution to AMD (NYSE: AMD),
a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. Per this agreement, AMD is licensing Denali
Databahn™ NAND Flash controller and
Spectra™ flash file system for inclusion in next-generation processors for handheld devices, providing high performance, simplified system development and low development cost benefits to handheld manufacturers.

"Design requirements for handheld devices continue to become more complicated and more diverse," said Shawn Kermanchi, engineering director, AMD's Handheld Division. "We are continually looking for ways to help our OEM customers bring compelling features to market while reducing integration time, and we believe that Denali's technology can be a valuable complement to our industry-leading solutions for handheld devices."

Denali has agreed to license to AMD their Databahn NAND Flash controller core technology, including hardware and source code, as well as test and simulation support.
Building on more than 20 years of graphics and multimedia expertise, AMD is a leading supplier of media processors to the handheld market. AMD
Imageon™ media processors deliver outstanding 2D & 3D graphics, image processing, video encode and playback, audio and mobile TV.

"An endorsement from a leading silicon provider, like AMD, is a strong testament for our NAND Flash technology," said Robert Pierce, senior director of Flash Products at Denali Software.
"Denali is addressing not only the silicon resource cost but also the performance needs of hardware designers developing mobile and consumer electronics. This solution is well suited for applications that need high-density memory, direct NAND boot with high performance, quality and reliability. We look forward to our technology roadmap, and enabling AMD to leverage our NAND Flash platform solution to achieve higher performance and productivity, delivering a competitive advantage to handheld manufacturers."

About Denali NAND Flash System Solution

The NAND Flash system from Denali is a comprehensive solution that provides NAND Flash controller IP and complete NAND Flash management software. The integrated solution provides embedded systems developers with a high-performance and high-reliability product for deploying NAND Flash systems for a variety of end applications. Databahn Flash controller products leverage the same silicon proven IP configuration infrastructure as the Databahn DDR controllers, which are now licensed for use in over 250 designs.

For more information, contact:

Editorial Contact:
Pierre Golde
Denali Software Inc.
650.461.7262
pgolde@denali.com

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