IBM and ST to jointly develop advanced system-on-a-chip products
Collaboration includes patent cross licensing and will accelerate development of system-on-a-chip dedicated products and advanced ICs for magnetic data storage
Paris, France (July 08, 1998) – IBM and STMicroelectronics today announced a joint effort which will accelerate development of advanced system-on-a-chip products. The two companies have concluded agreements to exchange intellectual property (IP) and jointly develop integrated circuits (ICs) for current and future data storage applications and information appliances, such as Web browsers, hand-held computing devices, and other multimedia products. The ability to place multiple function “systems” on a single silicon chip is key to future technology advancements in the semiconductor industry.
The two companies will exploit their combined technology strengths and custom-chip design capabilities to introduce new system-on-a-chip ICs to address the industry’s expanding data storage opportunities. The agreement will also allow IBM and STMicroelectronics to develop chips for new low-cost information and multimedia appliances which will bring the “information society” to the mass market.
According to industry analyst Dataquest, in 1997 there were approximately 130 million hard disk drives shipped. That market is expected to grow to almost 220 million in the year 2000. Dataquest also forecasts growth in the market for embedded microprocessors from $3 billion in 1998 to $5 billion in 2001.
“This partnership takes our industry firmly into the new century,” said Dr. Michael Attardo, General Manager, IBM Microelectronics. “Our joint efforts will accelerate the proliferation of single chip solutions and help spread the power of the information network to new users and applications across the globe.”
“We are at the beginning of a revolution that will deliver multimedia and information services to a huge audience, and our partnership with IBM will help accelerate this movement by developing system-on-a-chip products that meet mass market price/performance demands,” said Pasquale Pistorio, President and Chief Executive Officer of STMicroelectronics. “This agreement clearly positions both companies ahead of their competitors to deliver the best ICs for hard disk drives, and also the new ICs for advanced information appliances, that are possible only thanks to our combined system-on-a-chip IP, technologies, and products.”
To develop and build advanced system-on-a-chip products, the two companies have clearly identified the need for combined access to a rich portfolio of intellectual property, in addition to their present advanced process technologies, design tools, and methodologies.
The IP necessary to address the applications areas identified by IBM and ST is varied and complex. It may include microprocessor and microcontroller cores, digital signal processors (DSPs), memory blocks, communications cores, sound and video cores, and many of the other functions necessary for machine and human communications, such as high-speed serial interfaces.
IBM and ST have agreed to cooperate on the development of ICs for data storage, with a particular focus on hard disk drives. Specifically, ST will gain access to IBM’s PowerPC technology, and IBM to ST’s leadership, in next-generation DSPs for hard disk drives and CMOS read channel technologies. ST and IBM are combining their resources to enhance these technologies and help customers use these and other cores, plus the customer’s hard disk controller logic, to create super-integration ICs.
With both companies’ world-class ASIC capability, the customer is being given the ability to personalize these super-integrated solutions for their specific applications and target mass production of the resulting products at both IBM and ST. Having two sources for super-integrated products offers great advantages to the customer for such large volume applications. Given the complexity of such solutions, this can only be made possible by this kind of cooperative effort.
In addition, using ST’s approach of system-on-a-chip and the common x86 microprocessor core road map, both ST and IBM will bring to market a family of “computer-on-a-chip” products that will enable customers to build small, very powerful, multifunction information appliances.
The two companies have also concluded a full patent cross-licensing agreement to permit access to one of the largest IP bases in the industry. Both companies are recognized in the industry as owners of rich patent portfolios. With common agreement, each partner will have access to a wealth of inventions that will give considerable freedom to designers creating new system-on-a-chip products with a wide spectrum of functionality.
By jointly developing hard disk drive (HDD) and system-on-a-chip ICs, customers will have fully coherent alternative sources for advanced system-on-a-chip products, which will also be developed more quickly as a result of the combined resources of the two companies.
System-on-a-chip
Under the terms of the agreement, IBM has licensed ST’s x86 system-on-a-chip products and IP, and the two companies will jointly develop standard and dedicated system-on-a-chip products offering x86 compatibility and functionality in embedded applications. Pioneered by ST, the system-on-a-chip concept is now being accepted by the industry and will also be the basis of a new category of sub-$300 PCs and network computers that will represent a major share of the client computing market.
This agreement provides the basis for both companies to expand the market initiated by ST, where IBM brings its systems and technology know-how of the PC. ST brings its STPC family of system-on-a-chip products, its wide portfolio of consumer-oriented digital video and multimedia products, and its experience in marketing differentiated products for consumer applications.
Under the framework of this agreement, both companies will jointly develop products for specific targeted market areas, ranging from low-cost network stations, Windows terminals, Internet appliances, and industrial systems,such as point-of-sale (PoS) equipment.
Hard Disk Drive
The circuits to be developed for hard disk drive applications will be produced and marketed independently by the two companies. In addition to the faster time to market of new circuits, there will also be cost advantages as progress in super-integration leverages the strengths of the two companies and their joint development efforts.
An important aspect of the agreement is that ST and IBM will exchange major circuit blocks, including 32-bit microcontroller cores like the PowerPC and a new DSP based 32-bit microcontroller core for HDDs now in development at ST, in addition to dedicated functions like input/output interfaces. These blocks will be used by both companies to build system-on-chip ICs for hard disk drives,including super-integrated disk controllers and CMOS read/write circuits.
To allow the interchangability of circuit blocks and straightforward second sourcing, IBM and ST will also maintain compatibility in process technology. Existing 0.25-micron processes at the two companies are already closely aligned; through this agreement extends this alignment to embedded memory processes.
Together, ST and IBM bring to the market a partnership of exceptional strength. IBM Microelectronics is a key supplier of ICs to IBM’s storage division, one of the world’s top three disk storage manufacturers, and has been providing its world-class custom logic products to the external marketplace over the past five years, while ST has earned a reputation as a major supplier of ICs for disk drives thanks to advanced system-on-chip technology and a strategic focus on computer peripherals.
Source: IBM