GOVERNMENT

Tundra Semiconductor today announced that the Company has launched the world's first RapidIO Interoperability Lab (RIOLAB) for interoperability and specification compliance testing. Leveraging its depth of expertise, technology leadership, and commitment to drive the commercialization of RapidIO technology, Tundra has served as a de facto test facility for members of the RapidIO ecosystem and OEMs alike, resulting in the development of proven test scripts and making the formalization of the RIOLAB a natural evolution. Members of the RapidIO Trade Association (RTA) steering committee including Ericsson, Freescale Semiconductor, Lucent Technologies, Texas Instruments, Xilinx, and others immediately communicated their support for the RIOLAB initiative as a critical milestone in furthering deployment of RapidIO- based products. "The RIOLAB will give commercial semiconductor vendors, FPGA and ASIC developers as well as OEMs, the ability to validate interoperability of their products to the RapidIO specification, and in the longer-term ensure full device interoperability, increasing the potential for broader deployment of the RapidIO standard," said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst at The Linley Group. The launch of the RIOLAB will accelerate the realization of a test facility that will provide the RapidIO community with formal interoperability reports. The RIOLAB will be designed around graduated levels of interoperability that align with the increasing complexity of both the RapidIO specification and the needs of silicon vendors and OEMs. Operating as an independent facility, the RIOLAB will produce consistent and impartial results facilitating seamless integration of multi-vendor components and accelerating time to market for OEM products. The RIOLAB will build upon the foundation of interoperability checklists formalized by the RTA and is expected to be operational by summer 2006. "As a founding member of the RapidIO Trade Association, Tundra's depth of expertise and number of years of practical lab experience and interoperability work with leading RapidIO silicon vendors, has made it a natural choice for Tundra to facilitate the creation of a RapidIO Interoperability Lab," said Jim Parisien, product manager, Product Marketing Group, at Tundra Semiconductor. "The establishment of an independent interoperability lab is a welcomed evolution that will meet the needs of RapidIO ecosystem members and OEMs alike." As a separate wholly-owned subsidiary of Tundra, the RIOLAB will be a not-for-profit venture. Tundra is investing in the initial set-up costs and will offset recurring costs with vendor test fees. As a member of the RapidIO ecosystem, Tundra firmly believes that the early existence of an interoperability lab will strengthen and accelerate the overall market opportunity, which benefits the entire RapidIO community. Within 12 to 18 months of operation, the RIOLAB will be transitioned to a qualified third- party vendor within the ecosystem. "Tundra's role in accelerating the existence of a RapidIO community interoperability lab is timely given the proliferation of new products expected this year," said Tom Cox, executive director of the RapidIO Trade Association. "With the support of other leading ecosystem vendors, this lab will provide a facility where vendors can verify the function of their devices, thereby reassuring customers that their development work can be applications focused." RapidIO is an established, scalable, open-standard, switched fabric, designed by the leaders in embedded computing specifically to deliver the reliability, cost-effectiveness, performance and scalability required by OEMs building equipment in the wireless infrastructure, edge networking, storage, scientific, military and industrial markets. The standard is supported by a technology roadmap closely attuned to the changes affecting embedded infrastructure designers. A wide range of RapidIO products are currently available including: semiconductors (DSPs, Communications Controllers, Switches, FPGAs, ASIC Library Support), software (Processor and DSP RTOS Support), boards and modules (ATCA Carrier Cards, AMC Modules for DSPs, Processors) and FPGAs. As products proliferate, OEMs expect RapidIO Trade Association members to ensure interoperability so they can design systems with certainty. "As one of the vendors that will use RIOLAB, Tundra looks forward to successful interoperability testing with more end points and switches to provide evidence to OEMs that silicon can interoperate seamlessly in support of designing RapidIO-based systems," said Rick O'Connor, chief technology officer at Tundra Semiconductor. "Tundra is committed to our role within the ecosystem by fulfilling the need for interoperability today making it easier for OEMs to bring their next-generation RapidIO-based products to market faster."