The History of Arasan Chip Systems

In 2002 few people outside of Steve Jobs, could have predicted the iPhone. But a forward-looking technology CEO could expect Moore’s Law to extend into portable devices as it did with PCs. While 2G and 2.5G cellular phones were shipping in the hundreds of millions, the features were rather primitive. 3G, 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. were not available. The mega-pixel cameras, displays, and HD video capability of a modern smartphone were stuff of dreams.

That same year Arasan and his core team began its journey to deliver silicon intellectual property (IP) for portable electronics. The focus was not just on delivering IP Cores, but customer relationships and awareness of trends and evolving standards for portable electronics.

Arasan acquired the specifications from the SD Card Association (an apex body constituting Panasonic, SanDisk, and Matsushita) and entered the SD card market. SDIO, based on the SD standard, enabled add-on cards. While early adoption of the SD card and SDIO interface was limited to PDA and gaming systems, ACS established SDIO as a viable IP product for mobile devices. The first major break came when WiFi ICs using SDIO became a de-facto standard in mobile applications. SDIO has since evolved to support additional wireless standards like GPS, Bluetooth, WiMax, 3G, etc.

ACS actively participates and contributes to a number of major standards groups. In 2005, ACS pioneered the universal card host controller combing SD, SDIO and MMC. After joining JEDEC in 2008 eMMC support was added to the controller. Today the“3MCR” is the leading host memory card controller in mobile computing.

ACS was one of the first companies to join the MIPI Alliance and to contribute to the initial introductions of standards like DSI, CSI, Unipro, and SLIMBus. The high-speed serial interface required by many MIPI standards, led Arasan to invest in analog design – resources and mixed signal methodology for MIPI D-PHY and M-PHY. Today the largest microprocessor manufacturer and the leading suppliers of chipsets to cell phone companies are licensees of ACS’s MIPI based products.
First to design, first to market with a “Total IP Solution” has been Arasan’s goal from the formative years, and a key reason for making ACS the leader in mobile connectivity and mobile storage. The company prides itself on deep domain and system expertise. As a result ACS provides IP Cores with verification IP, software drivers and stacks, and validation platforms to enable customer success. Arasan Chip Systems established a reputation of the highest quality, unprecedented support, and a unique personal touch.

Mobile computing technology is constantly evolving to meet insatiable market demands for more features like higher resolution displays, multiple cameras, new WiFi standards, etc. To support these features, high-speed serial (SERDES) interfaces will drive growth in silicon IP (for example SSIC and Mobile PCIe, which will use the MIPI M-PHY). ACS customer engagements help tremendously to gauge these emerging trends, and to select future product offerings.