Date: 04/06/2012

EnSilica's 32-bit processor powering Xtendwave's time code receiver

EnSilica has announced that Xtendwave has licensed its eSi-3200 32-bit processor core to power Everset, Xtendwave's time code receiver solution for the next-generation WWVB atomic timekeeping signal. The new signal, broadcast by NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), a US Government agency, would represent the official time of the USA and includes the implementation of daylight saving time and leap seconds.

Xtendwave, a fabless semiconductor company focused on the development of physical-layer communication technologies is developing Everset as both a chip and IP solution to provide electronic clock and appliance manufacturers with a low-power solution for receiving and decoding the new timekeeping signal. The signal adopts an advanced communications protocol based on a new modulation and coding scheme. Xtendwave is developing Everset as part of its contract with NIST to design the new WWVB broadcasting system to overcome reception problems in certain locations and environments by enhancing performance and sensitivity as well as improving robustness to interference.

Several factors such as gate count, performance, power, code density and integration were considered to chose EnSilica's eSi-3200 product. EnSilica provided an optimized version of eSi-3200 for the Everset application that featured custom trigonometric instructions reducing cycle count by 30% and a 2Kbyte reduction in valuable memory space.

"EnSilica's eSi-3200 processor clearly proved the superior choice both technically and commercially following our evaluation." said Oren Eliezer, Xtendwave's chief technology officer. "Technically, it was the best solution for our demanding performance criteria. Commercially, EnSilica's flexible licensing model will not only enable us to proliferate the technology but also open up a wealth of new applications."