Tundra Tsi108(TM) in Production and Tsi109(TM) in General Sampling Now OTTAWA, Jan. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (TSX: TUN), the leader in System Interconnect, today announced two key development milestones for its family of host bridges, demonstrating the Company's rapidly strengthened position as the industry's leading supplier of host bridges for PowerPC. Tundra announced that the Tsi108 Host Bridge, a high performance host bridge with patent pending technology that supports PCI-X, DDR2-400 SDRAM, Gigabit Ethernet and Flash memory, is now in full production. The Tsi108 processor bus operates up to 200MHz and was the first host bridge for PowerPC to support DDR2 memory. With such integrated features as spread spectrum clock generation, the Tsi108 increases system performance, reduces system design complexity and lowers overall system cost. Tundra also announced that the Tsi109 Host Bridge is now available for general sampling. Building on the extensive benefits of the Tsi108, the Tsi109 is capable of dual processor support that enables higher system compute performance. The Tsi109 has an improved memory pipeline that increases memory bandwidth and integrated power management features to address demanding, low power applications. The Tsi108 and Tsi109 offer designers best system performance-per-watt as well as best system performance-per-dollar. Increased Performance and Functionality Brings Highly Optimized Systems to Market Faster Tundra's growing portfolio of Host Bridges for PowerPC delivers industry- leading system performance, power and cost for customers in the wireless and wireline networking, storage and embedded computing markets. The Tsi108 and Tsi109 have received broad support from several leading customers in a range of markets, including Momentum Computer Inc. Momentum Computer Inc., a leading provider of high-performance embedded, single board computer and compression solutions, designed Tundra's Tsi108 and Tsi109 into their board-level computer solutions for the data/telecommunications, military and aerospace markets, meeting the critical production and quality requirements of the leading industries in these markets. "We are pleased to see production availability and general sampling of Tundra's Tsi108 and Tsi109 high performance host bridges. These bridges are great additions to the PowerPC ecosystem and reflect Tundra's on-going leadership as the 'design partner' for System Interconnect and small footprint solutions," said Harry White, general manager of Momentum Computer Inc. "Our customers are demanding higher performance PowerPC solutions and the availability of Tundra's bridges with dual processor support, integrated power management and DDR2 memory backed by world-class support is enabling them to bring highly optimized systems to market faster." A Trusted Partner, Delivering Best System Performance, Power and Cost With over a decade of investment and experience supporting PowerPC-based designs, Tundra Host Bridges, which also include the Tsi107(TM) and the Tsi106(TM), are the industry's leading companion chips for Freescale Semiconductor's MPC74xx and IBM's PPC750xx families of high performance processors. Attesting to this, and to the design leadership and interoperability of Tundra's Tsi108 and Tsi109 host bridges, Freescale Semiconductor and IBM have both chosen to develop evaluation platforms that take advantage of the benefits of the Tsi108 and Tsi109 in a range of applications. MPC7448/Tsi108 solution - High Performance Computing Platform II (HPCII) The High Performance Computing Platform II (HPCII) MPC7448/Tsi108 solution offers users a second reference design and evaluation platform in the HPC series. This reference solution maximizes the capabilities of the Tundra Host Bridge family, providing customers with higher system performance and lower system power - creating the best system cost solution available. This evaluation platform is currently available through Freescale Semiconductor. "Tundra is a trusted partner in System Interconnect solutions, and we welcome the introduction of their new host bridge to the growing ecosystem behind PowerPC architecture," said Lynelle McKay, vice president and general manager of Freescale Semiconductor's Digital Systems Division. "The combination of Freescale's high-performance MPC7448 PowerPC processors and Tundra's Tsi108 and Tsi109 host bridges enables our customers to reduce power and increase performance for their embedded system designs." IBM PPC750GX/GL Tsi108 solution Now available through IBM, the PPC750GX/GL/Tsi108 evaluation platform effectively demonstrates the interoperability of the Tundra host bridge family with IBM PPC750GX processors and the ease of design made possible by its features. The evaluation platform also demonstrates the enhanced signal integrity benefits of the Tsi108 when paired with the IBM 750GX/GL through reliable 200MHz operation with only an 8-layer printed circuit board. For low power and cost sensitive applications, this combination provides users with the best performance, power and cost configuration available on the market. This evaluation platform is currently available through IBM. "IBM has added a 750GX/GL evaluation board using the Tsi108 because the Tundra product offers not only what we need in terms of cost and power benefits, but what our customers look for as well," said Ron Martino, director for PowerPC Standard Products, IBM Systems & Technology. "Designers looking to build high performance and scalable next generation systems need a reliable host bridge provider that offers the features and support they need to succeed," says Rick O'Connor, Tundra's chief technology officer. "Tundra is the System Interconnect leader delivering superior design support so that customers can realize the performance, power and signal integrity benefits to optimize system performance and cost for their PowerPC- based designs." ORDERING INFORMATION AND DESIGN SUPPORT TOOLS Both the Tundra Tsi108 and Tsi109 are available through Tundra's worldwide sales network. The Tsi108 is currently available in a standard package for commercial temperatures. A lead-free version is currently sampling and is expected to be in full production shortly. Volume pricing for the Tsi108 is under $70USD. The Tsi109 is currently sampling in both standard and lead-free packages for commercial temperatures. The Tsi109 will be available for industrial temperatures and is expected to be in full production in March 2006. Volume pricing for the Tsi109 is under $75USD. For documentation, including ordering information, user manuals, and software drivers, to assist in accelerated development with the Tsi108 and Tsi109, go to www.tundra.com/tsi108 and www.tundra.com/tsi109 ABOUT TUNDRA HOST BRIDGES FOR POWERPC Host bridges interconnect PowerPC processors with subsystems, and are a critical component in embedded designs. With over a decade of investment and experience supporting PowerPC-based designs, Tundra Host Bridges for PowerPC have been widely adopted by market leaders. Tundra Host Bridges include, the Tsi109, Tsi108, Tsi107, and Tsi106, and are regarded as the best companion chips for the industry's leading PowerPC processor vendors - Freescale Semiconductor and IBM. The Tsi108 and Tsi109 support several I/O peripherals - PCI, PCI-X, DDR2 Memory, and Gigabit Ethernet. Tundra Host Bridges optimize overall system performance, power and cost, while offering best signal integrity. ABOUT TUNDRA Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (www.tundra.com) is the global leader in System Interconnect providing world-class support and leading edge semiconductor solutions to the world's foremost communications, networking, storage system, and information technology vendors. Consistently delivering on system level performance promises that reduce time to market, Tundra System Interconnect ensures market advantage in wireless infrastructure, storage networking, network access, military, industrial automation, and information technology applications. TUNDRA is a registered trademark of Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (Canada, U.S. and U.K.). TUNDRA and the Tundra logo are registered marks of Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (Canada - registration in the United States, European Union, and People's Republic of China pending). Tsi108 and Tsi109 are trademarks of Tundra Semiconductor Corporation. The PowerPC name, Power Architecture name, and the Power PC logotype are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom. Other registered and unregistered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) Copyright 2006 Tundra Semiconductor Corporation. All rights reserved. Information subject to change without notice.