see also:-
Cadence
- editor mentions on StorageSearch.com,
Cadence's
processors and interfaces for SSDs page
who's who in the SSD ecosystem? - Cadence
by
Zsolt Kerekes,
editor - StorageSearch.com - -
December 18, 2015
Although Cadence hasn't yet appeared in
the
Top SSD Companies
(yet) Cadence is one of the leading supplier of processors used in SSD
controllers.
The company's
Tensilica
processor has been used (with different customization options) in SSD
controllers from -
Seagate (SandForce
range), Phison and
ViaTek.
I was an electronics design manager before CAD became so
easily
accessible on
workstations and my wife was the European marketing manager at a leading
ASIC company before Cadence
was founded (in 1988) so I've been generally aware of Cadence's role in the
electronics systems design and integration business for some time.
But
although I had noted Cadence being mentioned from time to time in
past storage
news stories it's the nature of the tool and glue chips industry that
most such relationshops aren't discussed publicly - or (more often) are
cloaked in secrecy.
As a result Cadence hasn't appeared much in these
pages and has never appeared in the
Top SSD Companies list
(compiled by StorageSearch.com).
That's nothing to worry about.
There are many companies which you don't hear about much which are -
nevertheless - strategic suppliers inside the SSD ecosystem.
This
anonymity (of talented SSD bit part players) used to be
the same story
with SSD controllers.
And after all's said and done - who cares
about what processors
are used inside SSDs?
It's what happens to them in the SSD design
architecture and integration which counts. Right?
So although I was
aware that Cadence is one of many processor and semiconductor IP
companies which are used in the SSD market I never had any particular reason or
interest in judging the magnitude of their activity and contributions.
That
was until a recent conversation with Cadence about the SSD market in which I
learned that Cadence - by its own reckoning - estimated that its
Tensilica
(processor) was used in more
SSD brands than
any other processor.
That wasn't what I expected.
So I fired
straight back... Do you have any market report evidence or a web page which
supports the claim that Tensilica processors that are in more brands of SSD
than any other?
Cadence didn't have such a web page. But the
details which they sent me by email (which I can't publish here) did confirm
to my own satisfaction that their processor has been used by many noteworthy
SSD companies (including several which have appeared in the Top 5 section of the
Top SSD Companies).
When it comes to the publicly known SSD
relationships...their processor has been used in several well known COTS SSD
controller brands - which includes (among others) the
SandForce controller
from Seagate. So you
could say - that helps the maths in their claim.
For reasons which
I've discussed in earlier articles we're now entering a phase of the SSD market
in which more new products need to be designed than have been done before. Which
means that many of us will now have a vested interest in descending down to
levels of detail in the SSD ecosystem which were previously hidden in the
mists of design detail - deep inside the SSD. |
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In June 2010 -
Cadence acquired the
SSD controller and IP company -
Denali Software.
In
August 2010
- Cadence discussed the
complexity
of typical enterprise SSDs (pdf) in a white paper at
FMS which also noted the
theoretical performance bottlenecks of interfaces (SAS and NVMe PCIe ) in
comparison to the available headroom in flash arrays when sized to maximally
fit typical drive form factors.
In
October 2011
-
Cadence collaborated
with BiTMICRO to set
up a new micro-chip design
training center in
the Philippines - called the Bruce Institute
of Technology.
In February 2016 -
Cadence showed the
ideas which it were important to SSD market thinking with its
suggested set of
links to articles for the
SSD Bookmarks
series. |
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