Date: July 28, 2009
Contact: Mr. K P Thong
Key ASIC Berhad
6 Floor, Unit 3, 8 First Avenue,
Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Malaysia
Phone: +603-7729 3300
Fax : +603-7729 1300
(Kuala Lumpur, 28 July 2009) KeyASIC Berhad (Stock Code: 0143) has announced today that the video processor chip that it has designed with a customer in Silicon Valley will begin shipment next quarter. The chip was designed on IBM 65nm process technology and will be fabricated in the most advance wafer fab of IBM in New York. This chip is the latest generation of video process that will go into high end Audio Video Recording systems, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu Ray systems. It allows interface to HDMI to high definition video systems.
The video processor uses breakthrough technologies to scale an image horizontally and vertically to achieve high quality video for today’s digital display. The proprietary deinterlacing technology and unique noise reduction capability enhance the pictures and provides an artifact-free picture quality for high quality viewing experience.
This is the 3rd generation video processing chip and the existing second generation chip, and will goes into many of the system in the next 3-5 months. The chip is currently in pilot run and is expected to be in mass production next quarter. It is expected that most of the Japanese brand of DVD, HD-DVD and Audio Video Receiver systems will be using this chip to enhance the picture quality, replacing the existing version of the chip. This chip is expected to ship about 1 million units a year and the market price of the chip of this type is about $10-$15. This chip is expected to ship over the next 3 years.
“We are pleased that this chip was successful in first silicon on IBM 65nm process technology. We now have a set of IPs that are silicon proven and a commercial design methodology and flow that is working well on IBM 65nm process. This will allow us to provide the design flow to our customers and allow us to engage more projects in the advance process technology. There a limited number of IC design companies worldwide that has turnkey silicon design and production experience in advance technology of 65nm and beyond,” said Eg Kah Yee, Chairman of KeyASIC. “The issues of signal integrity, IR drop, noise and power are some of the major concerns when designing and manufacturing at the deep submicron technology. The design methodology and flow must have the capabilities of simulating and validating those issues. KeyASIC now has developed a silicon proven design flow that allow us to have quality designs and quality yield. Advance design and process will be the primary focus of our business moving forward,” he added.
System on Chip or SoC is chip that consist CPU, Memory, analog blocks, I/O, etc. KeyASIC’s core competency is CPU based on datapath optimization for performance, power or size, enabling customer products to have SoC of higher performance and lower power, hence high values, and at the same time, smaller in die size, allowing customers to have lower costs. KeyASIC has developed proprietary technology for design optimization in the implementation of chips.
“We are currently working with some partners and customers in U.S., Japan and Taiwan on a few more 65nm SoC projects, and we expect a couple of them moving down to 45nm technology in the next generation,” Eg added. “We are definitely pushing the technologies and we intend to make this our key value add to our customers, reducing their time to market and increase their first time silicon success.”
About the Companies:
Key ASIC (Stock Code: 0143) is currently a public listed company on Mainboard of Bursa Malaysia. It specializes on turnkey ASIC design with IP and SoC platforms in consumer electronics and communication applications. Its customers are largely in the US and Asia. It has offices in Malaysia, Taiwan, and U.S.