QuickLogic Corporation announced an integrated programmable connectivity solution platform targeting mobile devices. The ArcticLink solution platform reduces design time and risk by embedding high performance controllers, a programmable fabric for implementing additional controllers and peripheral connectivity, as well as a selectable processor interface—all in a single, small form factor low power device.
According to a report published by iSuppli in the fourth quarter of 2006, 764 million handsets will ship in 2010 with USB as the most prevalent local interface—representing 63 percent of the total worldwide handset shipment. Furthermore, Bluetooth shipments in the handset market are predicted to increase significantly to 679 million units in 2010. Both of these data points underscore the potential ubiquity of both technologies in the mobile market. That being said, engineers tasked with integrating these technologies are not free from the risks associated with designing higher speed wired and wireless connectivity into their mobile platform from a performance, time-to-market and battery life perspective.
E. Thomas Hart, chairman, president and CEO, QuickLogic, said, "QuickLogic is addressing this very real risk component with a multi-faceted technology approach. By offering hardwired, high performance controllers along with the ability to customize with a variety of additional functions, the ArcticLink solution platform addresses our customers’ need for integrated, high performance, yet flexible connectivity solutions to enable the rapid adoption of new technology for their mobile products."
The ArcticLink solution platform supports emerging mobile applications such as smartphones, portable media players, portable navigation systems, portable industrial products, and ExpressCard peripherals for mobile computing.
The hardwired interfaces in the ArcticLink solution platform include a USB 2.0 High Speed On-the-Go (OTG) controller with integrated PHY and a SD/SDIO/MMC/CE-ATA host controller. The USB 2.0 OTG controller supports the maximum USB speed of up to 480 Mbps and can be configured as either a host or a device (OTG). The SD/SDIO/MMC/CE-ATA controller provides a SD card 2.0, SDIO host 2.0, MMC 4.1, or CE-ATA 1.10 compliant peripheral interface at speeds of up to 52 MHz. Other functions, such as PCI, IDE, NAND flash controller, additional SDIO host controllers, SPI, Bluetooth 2.0 UART, display controllers and other custom interfaces, can be implemented in the programmable fabric from QuickLogic’s library of proven solutions. The innovative combination of configurability of the fixed modules and programmability of the fabric makes the ArcticLink solution platform extremely flexible and scalable to the needs of mobile electronic designers.
Gary Forni, director of platform enabling, cellular handheld group at Marvell, stated, "The level of integration, low power consumption and flexible architecture of the ArcticLink platform make it a compelling companion solution for Marvell PXA application and communications processor platforms. Today's announcement of the ArcticLink platform demonstrates the value of QuickLogic's companion solution strategy in portable electronics. QuickLogic is a key member of the Marvell partner program and we work closely to deliver complete system solutions to our customers."
QuickLogic
