eASIC and IAR Systems Deliver e926 Development Kit for Designing Low-Cost, Customized ARM926EJTM Embedded Systems

The new kit comes complete with development board and supporting embedded design tools, that enable parallel development of software and hardware for SOCs

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 22, 2007 – eASIC Corporation, a provider of Structured ASIC devices, and IAR Systems, a provider of embedded development tools, today announced the immediate availability of the e926 Development Kit for designing affordable ARM926EJ-based embedded systems. The e926 Development Kit provides embedded system designers with a comprehensive application development environment. The kit includes eASIC’s e926 development board, IAR Systems’ software design and debug tools, as well as AMBA peripherals and reference designs that enable designers to start developing their software applications within 30 minutes.

The e926 development board is populated with a 90nm Nextreme Structured ASIC device that includes the ARM926EJ processor with integrated I-cache, D-cache, data and instruction tightly coupled memories. Nextreme Structured ASICs enable designers to rapidly develop hardware and software for customized ARM926EJ embedded systems. These custom devices feature low power consumption, low unit-cost and 3-4 weeks turnaround with zero mask-charges and no minimum order quantity.

“We want to make it easy for our customers to develop embedded processing applications using industry standard tools, hence our reason for partnering with IAR Systems,” said Jasbinder Bhoot , Senior Director of Marketing, at eASIC. “Our low-cost solution enables designers, even at small companies, to develop highly-differentiated embedded SOCs that can be optimized for either hardware or software. The e926 Development Kit will allow software development to start in parallel to silicon design and help our customers get to market faster.”

Complete Development Kit

The e926 Development Kit includes the following:

• e926 Development Board including eASIC’s 90nm Nextreme NX1500 Structured ASIC device with a preloaded industry standard ARM926EJ processor and a companion FPGA that is preconfigured with a suite of AMBA peripherals. The board also includes flash and SRAM memory and interfaces for LCD panels, VGA, USB2.0, JTAG, serial port, AC97 and 4 I/O expansion headers. 

• Embedded Workbench ARM Development Tools from IAR Systems including IDE, assembler, linker, C/C++ compiler, simulator and debugger. With its built-in chip-specific code optimizer, IAR Embedded Workbench® for ARM generates very efficient and reliable FLASH/PROMable code for eASIC’s ARM926EJ implementation. IAR Systems also bundles RTOS and middleware components from several vendors to satisfy the most demanding requirements.

• J-Link Debug USB Probe from IAR Systems for performing on target debug via JTAG.

• Reference Design and Tutorial

“At IAR Systems we know that product development is a game of managing complexity”, said Robert DeOliveira IAR Business Development Manager. “That’s why we have developed a complete, integrated development environment for embedded applications. Our objective is to provide eASIC customers with reliable and highly optimized code, while allowing for a flexible and easy to use environment combined with RTOS and Middleware components in order to meet the most demanding scheduling”.

Pricing and Availability

The e926 Development Kit is available now for purchase at only $2500. To find out more information or order the e926 Development kit, please visit eASIC website: http://www.easic.com/index.php?p=nextreme_arm926ej#e926.

About eASIC

eASIC is a fabless semiconductor company offering breakthrough Structured ASIC devices that reduce the overall fabrication cost and time of customized silicon devices. Through employing a unique and patented combination of FPGA like logic-cells and via-layer customizable routing, eASIC enables customers to develop Structured ASICs with zero mask charges, no minimum order quantity and receive devices in under 4 weeks.
Founded in 1999, eASIC Corporation is privately held, headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Investors include Vinod Khosla, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB), Crescendo Ventures, and Evergreen Partners. www.eASIC.com

About IAR

IAR Systems, founded in 1983, is a world-leading provider of embedded development tools for 8, 16 and 32-bit Microcontrollers. IAR Systems operates in the US, China, Japan, Germany, the UK, Sweden and Brazil as well as through a large net of distributors all over the world. www.IAR.com