Under a recent licensing agreement between NSCore (a supplier of nonvolatile memory intellectual property) and Kawasaki Microelectronics (a provider of High-End ASICs), NSCore’s PermSRAM embedded logic nonvolatile memory technology will be added to K-micro's ASIC intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

 

Kyoichi Kissei, executive vice president at K-micro, expressed his company’s delight to enter into a licensing arrangement with NSCore. Adding NSCore's PermSRAM technologies to the IP portfolio provides great value to customers.

 

Noting that there are a number of applications that will gain from the use of PermSRAM technology, Kissei announced plans to offer it to all of their customers. He said that cost-sensitive consumer applications, for instance, will benefit from the reduction of external memory on their boards as well as the reduction of the interconnection between the ASIC and memory chip.

 

Tadahiko Horiuchi, president & CEO, NSCore observed that K-micro provided valuable support and assistance during development and verification phases, and it plans to continue working with the company as technology advancement continues and migration gets underway to more advanced 65nm and 45nm processes.

 

He said that the relationship with K-micro, and an advanced customer base, will drive the company to develop advanced products and technology to meet the future needs of the market.

 

By using a standard CMOS logic process without any additional mask or process steps, PermSRAM technology provides nonvolatile memory for SoC, ASIC, and ASSP. This technology is an ideal solution for an IC designer who is developing a chip that requires an internal function for analog trimming, program storage, encryption key, chip ID, look up table, etc.