21 November 2006

IPextreme & Freescale Collaborate On Debug Technology

IPextreme Inc and Freescale Semiconductor have extended their collaboration to deliver IEEE-ISTO Nexus 5001 Consortium-compliant embedded processor debug technology for licensing through IPextreme's Intellectual Property (IP) Commercialisation Program.

IPextreme will market, license and support Freescale's Nexus 5001 interface blocks to drive broad adoption of the Nexus standard targeting automotive, mass-storage, avionics and communications applications.

IPextreme is now offering four Nexus interface blocks: the ARM7 Nexus Client that taps directly into the CoreSight interface of ARM7 designs; the ARM9 Client an equivalent core for ARM9 designs; the AHB Nexus Client that connects to AMBA 2.0 Masters; and the Nexus Port Controller that connects multiple processor Clients and bus masters over a single Nexus Port interface. The port controller enables the dynamic control and observation of multiple Nexus Clients from a single development and debugging environment.

"We selected IPextreme to help expand the market for the Nexus 5001 debug standard based on the company's global presence, automotive market expertise and demonstrated ability to package, market and support complex IP subsystems," said Ron Stence, a microcontroller system engineer at Freescale and former chair of the Nexus 5001 Forum. "As a founding member of the Nexus 5001 Forum, we feel that working with IPextreme is an effective way to achieve greater market acceptance of this valuable technology, which has been proven on five separate architectures within Freescale."

Warren Savage, IPextreme CEO, commented: "We're pleased to again partner with Freescale to expand our IP offerings to include the Nexus 5001 technology. They join the proven Freescale FlexRay Communication Controller IP and ColdFire V2 core already available from IPextreme and further strengthen our already broad automotive IP offering. The market has shown a preference for standards over proprietary solutions and we are enthusiastic about supporting technology that enables the semiconductor industry to move forward in a unified direction."

The Nexus 5001 Forum membership spans the semiconductor, development tools and automotive electronics industries. Although the Forum initially focused on the stringent requirements of microprocessor debug tools for automotive power train applications, its overall goal is to enable the continued development of state-of-the-art, easy-to-use, high-performance microcontrollers. Forum members include Analog Devices; Ashling Microsystems Ltd.; Delphi Delco Electronics Systems; dSPACE GmbH; ETAS; First Silicon Solutions, Inc.; Ford Motor Company; Freescale Semiconductor; General Motors Corp.; Green Hills Software, Inc.; Hitex Development Tools; IAR Systems AB; Infineon Technologies; IPextreme Inc.; Lauterbach Datentecknick GmbH; Motorola, Inc.; NEC Electronics; Samtec, Inc.; STMicroelectronics; Tensilica; Texas Instruments; Visteon Corporation; and Wind River Systems, Inc.

The Nexus 5001 Forum is a program of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organisation (IEEE-ISTO), which provides administrative and management support to industry consortia and other standards development forums. To download the IEEE-ISTO 5001(TM)-1999 specification via the Nexus 5001 Forum Web site, go to: http://www.nexus5001.org.