Korean universities license configurable processor

There are now more than 80 universities worldwide that use Xtensa processors in their research and/or classrooms.

Two Korean universities have licensed Tensilica's Xtensa configurable processor.

The CoSoC (Centre of System on Chip Design Technology) of Seoul National University is using the Xtensa processor in the classroom and has announced its third annual SoC (system-on-chip) design contest, which will, for the first time, accept designs that use Xtensa processors.

The KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has licensed the Xtensa configurable processor to develop multimedia SoC designs.

"Our agreement with these two universities underscores our dedication to working with high level academic institutions around the world to train the next-generation of design engineers in the inherent advantages of configuring and extending processors for the exact application", says Steve Roddy, Tensilica's Vice President of Marketing.

"Because Xtensa processors are tailored for the exact application, they are very efficient and can do a better job of meeting requirements for performance, area, and power consumption than general-purpose processor cores".

"We now have over 80 universities worldwide that use Xtensa processors in their research and/or classrooms".

The CoSoC was established with the support of Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy in April of 2003 with a five-year business plan for propagation of platform-based SoC design technologies.

The third SoC Design Contest is being held to help spread platform-based SoC design methodologies to undergraduate and graduate school students and to improve their creative design skills.

By having the students directly experience the SoC design methodologies and design environment, the Korean government believes that the country's SoC design infrastructure will be expanded.

This should lead to the expansion of SoC design activities in companies as well, and eventually become foundation for competitiveness.

The contest concludes with an award ceremony on 7th December 2007.

"By utilising the configurability of Tensilica's Xtensa processors, we plan to study SoC architecture optimisation", says Soo-yik Chae, a Professor from CoSoC of Seoul National University.

"We expect that students can easily learn to design using a configurable processor and that the Xtensa processor will help us establish foundation technology for the study of SoC configurations".

KAIST plans to use the Xtensa processor in a new multimedia SoC development platform.

KAIST decided to use Tensilica's Xtensa configurable processor to meet its performance, area and power requirements.

"We are in the process of developing a multimedia SoC for mobile applications with an integrated H.264 decoder and plan to use the Xtensa processor in the development platform", says Prof Jong-min Kyung of KAIST.

According to Prof Kyung, KAIST plans to supply a development environment that can be easily used at universities, as well as small and medium sised companies.

Through this, engineers and students are expected to accelerate time to market of multimedia SoC products with higher performance and less power consumption than a general purpose processor.

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