PISMO Advisory Council Announces Five New Members

HostReview.com
Monday, April 25, 2005; 03:42 PM

The PISMO Advisory Council (www.pismoworld.org), an organization focused on streamlining system-level memory validation and test, today announced that semiconductor providers Analog Devices, Broadcom, Cypress, M Systems and Micron Technology, Inc. have joined the organization.

The group, which now includes 11 member companies, is defining a single, board-level interface standard that allows designers to use a variety of memory devices on development platforms from multiple vendors in a plug-and-play fashion.

"The addition of these five new members validates our belief that the industry must work together to reduce the complexities of verifying the compatibility of memory and logic," said Fasil Bekele, chairman of the PISMO Advisory Council.

Significant growth in the wireless and embedded markets has given rise to hundreds of new processors, chipsets and memory types that must be tested for compatibility.

Members of the PISMO Advisory Council provide input and are allowed to vote on enhancements and changes to the standard. Members are also given early access to PISMO specifications and design collateral.

Membership is open to any company involved in semiconductor or systems development. Meetings are held quarterly, with the next meeting planned for June 15, 2005.

"As a leading supplier of chipsets for the rapidly evolving wireless handset market, Analog Devices sees a need for simplifying memory validation and testing," said Mark Martin, product line director of RF and wireless systems for Analog Devices, Inc., a world-leading semiconductor company specializing in high-performance analog, mixed-signal, and digital-signal processing (DSP) integrated circuits (ICs).

"The proliferation of various memory products targeted for handheld communication systems creates connectivity challenges for Broadcom and our customers," said Nelson Sollenberger, senior director of engineering for Broadcom's Mobile Communications Products.

"We are looking forward to working with the PISMO Advisory Council to define the industry's first standard targeted at reducing memory test complexity," said Christos Mimikopoulos, senior product marketing manager at Cypress.

"With a variety of Flash-based memory solutions widely used in many market segments, M Systems sees an essential need for standards and industry cooperation," said Zack Weisfeld, general manager of M Systems America.

"Through participation in standards bodies, Micron plays a strategic role in ensuring the compatibility of next-generation memory technologies in our customers' platforms," said Achim Hill, Micron's senior director of marketing for mobile memory.

The council has already released the first version of the specification, defining a standard interface for devices on the static RAM (SRAM) bus. It also plans to deliver an enhanced version of the specification later this year that will extend its support for devices on other memory buses, such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM); DDR Flash and RAM; NAND and SPI.

The PISMO Advisory Council, spearheaded by Spansion and ARM, is the industry's first organization focused on streamlining system-level memory test and validation. The PISMO interface standard defines mechanical and electrical specifications for small form-factor memory modules.