The bridge is used in conjunction with Synopsys' portfolio of DesignWare IP for PCI Express version 1.1 and preliminary 2.0 (Gen II), the company said. By providing a PCI Express-to-AMBA 3 AXI bridge, Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.) said it is enabling designers using the AMBA 3 AXI protocol to add PCI Express external connectivity to their system-on-chips (SoCs). Synopsys said it is showcasing the DesignWare Bridge for PCI Express to AMBA 3 AXI protocol at the PCI-SIG Developers' Conference in San Jose, Calif., Thursday and Friday.
"PCI Express and AMBA are the leading off-chip and on-chip interconnect specifications, respectively, and bridging these two standards enables higher throughput devices for key application areas," said Keith Clarke, vice president of technical marketing and ARM Holding plc.
According to Synopsys, creating a bridge between two bus protocols is a challenge because not all aspects of the buses' protocol map directly from one to the other. The difficulty increases when developing a configurable bridge that supports multiple system performance objectives at both ends of the bridge, the company said.
Synopsys said the new bridge is currently in use by early adopters and is scheduled for general availability during the current quarter.
Synopsys Thursday named Brian Cabrera vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary.
Cabrera replaces Rex Jackson as corporate counsel. Jackson quietly left Synopsys in January to become senior vice president and general counsel at Avago Technologies, the chip spinoff of Agilent Technologies, a Synopsys spokesperson said Thursday.
Cabrera, most recently general counsel at Callidus Software Inc., has also worked for PeopleSoft Inc., Netscape Communications Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. and San Francisco law firm Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon. Earlier in his career, Cabrera held positions with the U.S. Attorney's office, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the Office of the Attorney General of California, Synopsys said.
