SUNNYVALE, California — March 1, 2006

QuickLogic Companion Device Enables Energy Efficient HDD and PCI Connectivity to Intel PXA Processor

  • Lowest power, single-chip solution provides bridge and control functions between PXA Processor, Micro Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and PCI-based devices
  • Solution Pack includes Linux and Windows® CE software drivers, reference designs and Mobile Application Board (MAB)

QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QUIK), the lowest power programmable logic leader, today announced the availability of its bridge controller based on the ultra-low power Eclipse II™ FPGA technology. The integrated IDE and PCI controllers enable energy efficient connectivity between the popular Intel® PXA processor family, IDE-based Micro HDDs and PCI-based devices.

The Intel® PXA is one of the most popular processors for handheld, battery-powered portable applications; however, the processor does not provide a native interface to common standards such as PCI and IDE. This poses battery life challenges when integrating commonly used PCI-based peripherals such as Wi-Fi, Ultra Wideband, MPEG decoder/encoder devices and 10/100/1G Ethernet chipsets. QuickLogic’s companion products solve this challenge.

The embedded PCI controller of the companion device supports two external PCI agents. Through the on-board programmable logic, the device can be expanded to support up to four external PCI agents. Through the use of the SDRAM bus-mastering feature supported by the PXA processor, the QuickLogic companion device has been optimized to significantly reduce processor bus utilization – not feasible with CPLDs or FPGAs without embedded RAM.

The embedded IDE controller can perform transfers to or from an IDE-based hard disk drive in any of the PIO modes (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4). By integrating full sector buffers in the device, QuickLogic has been able to demonstrate performance of >13MB/s during data transfers. The IDE timing and registers are completely handled by the QuickLogic companion device, hence further reducing the processor’s bus utilization and enabling more energy efficient operation.

“This latest programmable bridge controller is another example of QuickLogic’s commitment to delivering ready-to-integrate solutions for portable products such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Smartphones, Personal Media Products (PMP), and portable industrial systems,” said Itsu Wang, Logic Products, Marketing Manager for QuickLogic. “Our ultra-low power FPGAs, and complete Solution Packs guarantee the best performance at the lowest power, and decrease design time, allowing our customers to reach production faster.”

Pricing and Availability

The bridge controller and Linux/Windows CE software drivers are available now with pricing starting at $6 in high volume. More information on the bridge controller can be found at www.quicklogic.com/pxa_companion. The Mobile Application Board that supports this PCI/IDE bridge controller is available now and is currently priced at $999. For more information on the MAB, visit www.quicklogic.com/mab.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among others, the expected performance, efficiency and benefits of any QuickLogic products and expectations regarding pricing. QuickLogic’s actual results may differ materially from the results described in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to performance and market acceptance of QuickLogic product technology and the impact of competitive products, general conditions in the semiconductor industry and related development risks. Certain other risk factors are detailed in QuickLogic’s periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. QuickLogic disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

About QuickLogic

QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QUIK) is the inventor and pioneer of innovative, customizable semiconductor solutions for mobile and portable electronics OEMs and ODMs. These silicon plus software solutions are called Customer Specific Standard Products (CSSPs). CSSPs enable our customers to bring their products to market more quickly and remain in the market longer, with the low power, cost and size demanded by the mobile and portable electronics market. For more information about QuickLogic and CSSPs, visit www.quicklogic.com.

Press Contacts:
Andrea Vedanayagam
Sr. MarCom Manager, QuickLogic Corporation
(408) 990-4000
Susan Cain
Cain Communications
(503) 538-2747

The QuickLogic name and logo are registered trademarks of QuickLogic Corporation. All other brands or trademarks are the property of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

Code: QUIK-G