UMC, Artisan co-develop PCI-Express PHY core

Semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and Artisan Components Inc., a provider of physical IP, have agreed upon a long-term IP collaboration focused on the development of a PCI-Express PHY IP core for UMC's 0.13?m chip designs.

The new core will be based on the PCI Express Architecture that has been proposed by the PCI-SIG (PCI Special Interest Group) - which owns and manages PCI specifications as open industry standards. The modular 8-lane PCI Express 2.5Gbps PHY is designed to be a general-purpose I/O interconnect for "in-the-box" applications. Its architecture provides a connectivity solution for adapter cards, attach points for graphics I/Os as well as an I/O attach point for other interconnects like 1394b, USB 2.0, Infiniband, and Ethernet.