News & Events
Avent Design Sercives Announces Xicor Joins Avalon™ Reference Design System Alliance
--Modular Reference Design System Features Xicor Products
PHOENIX, Ariz. January 30, 2002 Avnet Design Services (ADS), the technical arm of Avnet Electronics Marketing, today announced Xicor, Inc. (Nasdaq/NMS: XICO), a leading supplier of programmable mixed-signal integrated circuits, has joined the new ADS AvalonTM Reference Design System Alliance. Xicor CPU Supervisor products are featured on Avalon BaseBoards and Add-on cards. The Avnet Design Services Avalon Reference Design System is a set of modular and compatible hardware, firmware, IP Cores, applications programs, device drivers, development tools and test equipment used by designers to create reference designs and development platforms that dramatically speed time to market.
The Design Challenge
Todays design challenges are breaking the back of current design methodologies. In the headlong rush to market, the serial approach to design - where architecture selection, hardware prototype, IP selection and integration, firmware design, applications code development, test and debug occur in succession over time - takes too long and seldom hits the target on the first pass through. Designers need a short cut that allows parallel development activity, using off the shelf hardware, easily integrated IP cores, and a development environment with existing firmware and applications hooks targeted for particular applications.
Reference designs give the designer a complete working environment in which they can easily create additional features and capabilities. This parallel approach can provide the short cut required. Yet traditional approaches to the reference design philosophy have been disappointing, due to their inherent inflexibility. The designer has little choice in selecting the processor, peripheral sub-system or IP core that would be best, or even to easily experiment with a variety of system building blocks. What is required is the electronic equivalent of movable type - making it possible for a designer to quickly and easily create the exact reference design platform they require. A successful reference design system requires an alliance of a variety of industry-leading semiconductor suppliers, IP core providers, firmware developers, applications program developers, design tool providers and test and debug tool vendors. The Avalon Reference Design System Alliance was formed with the goal of creating this new design environment.
"We are excited to announce Xicor as a member of the Avalon Alliance. The strong Xicor portfolio of programmable mixed-signal products will help extend the Avalon Reference Design System reach into important application areas and supports the Alliance's focus on accelerating time to market," said Warren Miller, vice president of marketing for Avnet Design Services. "Programmable mixed-signal products from Xicor allow designers to get to working hardware quicker and respond to changes in applications requirements even after designs are completed. This will allow designers to get better products to market faster."
"Xicor is pleased to be a member of the Avalon Alliance. Designers will benefit from having Avalon-compliant hardware available, populated with Xicor programmable mixed-signal products," said Mike Levis, vice president of Marketing. "We have found that time to market is one of the most difficult challenges for electronics equipment designers and manufacturers today. The Avalon Alliance is the first industry-wide initiative that brings together all the pieces of the time to market puzzle. All Alliance member customers will benefit from the robust solution we can now provide."
Avalon Description
The foundation of the Avalon Reference Design System is the set of hardware modules on which all reference design platforms are based. The hardware begins with the selection of the most appropriate BaseBoard for the target application. The BaseBoard is the starting module of a design from which all other hardware, firmware and software is overlaid. Once the hardware is established, the designer selects the add-on hardware cards and IP Cores used to enable the hardware functions required for the application. Drivers specific to the functions are then selected to enable access to the hardware resources by the applications code and firmware. Application core, debug and test equipment, CAD tools and other Avalon enabling modules can be mixed and matched to fit the specific needs of the designers application. There are over 30 Avalon compliant modules available today, with more on the way. For more information on the current Avalon Alliance members, and a complete list of available Avalon compliant Modules visit www.avnet.com/em/solutions/avalon.
About Avnet Design Services
Avnet Design Services is the technical arm of Avnet Electronics Marketing, providing a variety of technical resources and capabilities to speed customers' design cycles and to get their products to market quicker. Field applications engineers (FAEs) are knowledgeable about a variety of potential applications solutions for customers' design problems and can guide engineers to the solution that is right for their particular applications. Fee-for-service engineering services, in FPGA, ASIC and System Design are offered to Avnet customers. For more information, visit the Avnet Design Services Web site at http://www.ads.avnet.com.
About Avnet Electronics Marketing
Avnet Electronics Marketing (EM) is the largest operating group of Phoenix, Ariz.-based Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) a Fortune 500 company with fiscal 2001 sales of $12.8 billion (year ended June 30, 2001). The world's largest distributor of semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components from leading manufacturers, Avnet EM markets, inventories and adds value to these products and provides world-class supply-chain management and engineering design services. Avnet EM serves customers in 63 countries. The company's Web site is located at http://www.avnet.com.
About Xicor
Xicor, Inc. designs, develops, markets and sells nonvolatile in-the-system programmable products which retain information even when the system is turned off or power is inadvertently lost. Xicor's product line includes digitally controlled potentiometers (XDCPs), system management ICs and standard and secure memory ICs. Xicor product, corporate and financial information is readily available on the World Wide Web at http://www.xicor.com
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release are forward looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks may include the impact of competing products and pricing, timely design acceptance by our customers, timely ability to ramp new products into volume production, industry wide shifts in supply and demand for semiconductor products, and other risks detailed from time to time in Xicor's SEC filings.
