Tensilica Licenses Xtensa Core to Agilent Technologies

Update: Cadence Completes Acquisition of Tensilica (Apr 24, 2013)

Storage Networking Leader to Leverage Configurable and Extensible Processor Technology in its Next-Generation Storage Networking Devices

SANTA CLARA, Calif., October 21, 2002 – Tensilica, Inc. the leading supplier of configurable and extensible microprocessor cores, today announced that it has licensed its Xtensa microprocessor core to Agilent Technologies Inc. Agilent plans to use the Xtensa core in some of its next-generation storage networking IC solutions. 

"With storage networking technologies scaling to 10 Gigabits, a flexible high-performance technology and design approach is required," said Martin Scott, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Storage and Networking Division. "Tensilica's highly-flexible processor core complements our scalable and widely used Tachyon Fibre Channel controller technology, and will be a part of an extensive portfolio of feature rich silicon products."

"Industry leaders like Agilent understand the advantages of a flexible approach to hardware design," said Bernie Rosenthal, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Tensilica. "With Xtensa technology, Agilent will be able to develop the storage solutions that deliver the performance needed to support the emerging protocols in the storage networking market."

About Agilent's Storage Networking Solutions
Agilent is a leading supplier of 1 and 2 Gb/s Fibre Channel solutions for the high-performance, enterprise-class SAN market, and is also a world leader in fiber optics and ICs for the Ethernet market. Agilent provides industry-leading Tachyon Fibre Channel controllers, InfiniBand switch ICs, fiber optics, physical layer ICs, and integrated Fibre Channel and iSCSI adapter boards. Agilent also offers test and measurement solutions. More information is available at www.agilent.com/view/storage.

About Xtensa
The Xtensa configurable and extensible microprocessor architecture provides a powerful, integrated hardware and software development environment with thousands of configuration options and an unlimited range of customer-specific extensions. The environment enables designers to carefully tune the processor for their particular application. With an easy-to-use graphical interface, designers can take advantage of Tensilica's processor generator to create customized MPU solutions with specialized functional and instructions. Because these instructions are recognized as "native" by a complete set of software development tools, developers can simultaneously tune both application software and processor hardware to meet specific speed, power and feature goals.

About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessor solutions in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa, Tensilica is the only company that has automated the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.

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Editors' Notes:

"Tensilica," "Xtensa" and "Sea of Gates" are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Tensilica's announced licensees are Agilent, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, IC4IC, Ikanos Communications, JNI Corporation, Marvell (Galileo Technology), Mindspeed Technologies, National Semiconductor, NEC Networks, NEC Solutions, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., ONEX Communications, OptiX Networks, Osaka & Kyoto Universities, TranSwitch Corporation, Trebia Networks, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) and ZiLOG.