14 DAY TRIAL // VIA is serious about getting in the solid state drive game, so it looked for the sort of processors that may help it put on the best show, eventually deciding on Tensilica DPUs.
VIA intends to build a solid state drive controller chip, but it needed a good dataplane processor for that, or more of them.
As such, it scouted around for the most convenient one, choosing Tensilica's Xtensa DPUs in the end.
If one does not know of Tensilica, they may be interested in learning that the company is also responsible for the speed of SandForce SSD controllers.
To elaborate, SandForce uses the Tensilica Diamond Standard 108Mini RISC controller.
Back to VIA, the company wants to make an SoC (system-on-chip) capable of pushing solid state drives to higher data speeds than the competition. At the same time, power efficiency is supposed to be very high as well.
"In the SSD market, every competitive advantage we can get is very important," stated Jiin Lai, VIA's CTO.
"We have a significant advantage using Tensilica DPUs to lower the power and increase the throughput of our products."
Tensilica's DPUs let designers customize the IP core, add high-bandwidth connectivity and combine both control and signal processing in a single package.
All in all, it should be possible to achieve an efficiency of 10 times or more compared to other chips.
"VIA is a great example of how our customers benefit from high performance, low energy consumption, and small die size with Tensilica DPUs that have full software and hardware development paths which simplifies integration with existing RTL and software," stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing and business development.
Alas, the company did not say how long it would take for an SoC to be completed, or for products based on it to reach stores.