NetLogic Microsystems and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) have entered into a collaboration on 40nm-G semiconductor process technology for NetLogic’s knowledge-based processors and 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer (PHY) devices.
NetLogic is currently sampling the NLP2040 and NLP3040, the single-die quad-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) PHY devices, both of which are manufactured in the 40nm process to offer reduced power consumption for switches, routers and blade servers addressing the data center, enterprise networking, storage and service provider markets.
In addition, NetLogic is also sampling the NLP10000, the 100 Gigabit Ethernet PHY device, which is also manufactured in the 40nm process and offers customers scalability for data-centre, metro and long haul applications.
NetLogic said that it will also tape out its knowledge-based processor, the NL11000 device, in TSMC’s 40nm process. It has developed a suite of custom circuits optimised around TSMC’s 40nm node, including serial interface technology, analogue and clocking circuitry, core processing elements and other cells, as well as refining the design and tape-out flow for this node.
This collaboration extends the relationship between TSMC and NetLogic on the use of advanced half-node technologies, including 55nm, 80nm and 110nm. The companies expect to broaden the relationship to include the Multi-Core, Multi-Threaded Processor product line from RMI Corporation, with which NetLogic has entered into a definitive agreement to merge.
