2020: What a Year It’s Been
Tuesday December 29, 2020By Julie DiBene
Director, Marketing Communications
MoSys, Inc.
2020 will undoubtably go down in the books as the year everyone could not wait to end. Unprecedented on so many fronts, it may have felt that tech often got lost amid the massive changes wrought by COVID-19, social injustices and politics.
Even so, there were many good changes brought on by continued innovation on the tech front including the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) solutions across a wide range of applications. This included the continued electrification of automobiles and the growing promise of Autonomous Vehicles along with the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and its enablement by 5G network.
With respect to the emergence of 5G networks, this became even more important as the impact of COVID-19 on working from home drove the need for workers to have reliable network connections. Also in this category was the impact of doing business over Zoom and team meetings along with the continued push to put processing and security closer to the edge of networks. Finally, the industry experienced more growth of cloud services and Data Centers.
While all this was going on, MoSys was doing its part, working hard to drive acceleration across multiple applications. We started the year off strong by announcing new software targeting software packet classifications announced the first products in its Software Acceleration Product Line. The Packet Classification Platform is designed to make use of MoSys’ innovative virtual accelerator, the Graph Memory Engine (GME), for performing embedded search and classification of packet headers as an alternative to TCAM functions. The platform includes the GME and software that compiles TCAM images into graphs for GME processing using a common API for portability. MoSys GME is provided as a family of implementations ranging from a pure software version for maximum flexibility and capacity, RTL for use in a Xilinx FPGA for hardware performance, and a maximum performance RTL solution connected to a MoSys Programmable HyperSpeed Engine (PHE) with its 32 embedded RISC cores. The initial FPGA versions of the GME are compatible with Xilinx UltraScale+ and utilize a common RTL interface to facilitate platform portability.
This announcement was followed quickly the release of our new LineSpeedTM 100G PHY Design Support Package which featured pre-configured firmware and register sets for its LineSpeed Flex family of 100G PHY products. The register and firmware compatible family includes 100G gearbox and retimer devices with support for Reed Solomon Forward Error Correction (RS-FEC) rates up to 28Gbps, retimers with up to 20 independent lanes and the industry-leading 100G gearbox footprint. Available immediately, each mode and product option is supported by a pre-configured firmware and register set, reference material and support documentation for schematics and layout to accelerate design time and product roll-out.
Come Spring, MoSys announced that it had signed a global distribution agreement with Digi-Key Electronics agreement with Digi-Key which gave us access to more than 600,000 customers and allowed us to start raeching those that have never before been aware or experienced the benefits of our high-speed memory solutions. Later in the year, we added a sample program with Digi-Key for our new QUAZAR QPR product line.
To that end, in the summer, we launched our new QUAZAR QPR family of low cost, quad partition rate SRAM memory ICs which are designed to accelerate INTEL and XILINX FPGA designs. This new line of memory solutions, the QUAZAR family of Low Cost, Ultra-High Speed SRAM memory devices are optimized for FPGA-based systems. This launch was pivotable for MoSys because our QUAZAR devices achieve a cost point previously not attainable with memories at these speeds and capacity. Utilizing 1T memory cell and high density and high-speed design of advanced memory architectures, we are expanding our family of unique, multi-partitioned memories, which include Bandwidth Engine (BE2/3 and PHE) devices and, now, the new QUAZAR devices. In addition to the IC, MoSys offers an RTL memory controller that presents an SRAM-like interface to simplify the design effort.
Finally, as part of our continuous drive for innovation, we announced that our Graph Memory Engine (GME) Accelerator IP is now running on Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGAs. The GME is part of MoSys’ Packet Classification Platform, which I mentioned that we announced earlier this year, is capable of performing embedded search and classification of packet headers. A typical use would be an alternative to TCAM functions. The proprietary platform software enables the compilation of TCAM images into graphs for GME processing. The GME product offering includes software, firmware and RTL and utilizes a common API and common RTL interface to facilitate platform portability.
As we look forward to 2021, please continue to follow us and our quest to accelerate the industry’s most advanced applications. Even with its many ups and downs, 2020 is soon to be in our rear view mirror and we are looking forward to expanding our innovative offerings and enabling fast, intelligent data access for enable fast, intelligent data access for Cloud, networking, security and communications systems the industry’s most advanced Cloud, networking, security and communications systems.
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