Oxfordshire, UK and Romsée, Belgium — 8th December, 2008 — Orange Tree Technologies, a board-level embedded hardware and software company focused on high performance communications interconnect, today announced the supply of its Zest Series interconnect modules to LnK, the leading provider of test and verification solutions for SLIMbus, a standard interface between processors and peripheral components in mobile platforms. LnK have integrated the Zest modules into their SLIMbus product suite, reducing time-to-market and optimizing performance, reliability and efficiency. LnK’s SLIMbus products cover protocol analysis through compliance testing and IP verification. The products are supported with expert SLIMbus know-how from LnK, a SLIMbus Specification Member of the MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) Alliance.

Already used by the majority of chip companies that are developing production SLIMbus components, LnK’s tool-suite allows IP developers to verify designs at an early stage and during simulation. Its traffic generator can produce the most complex scenario’s including different levels of error insertion. LnK’s SLIMbus analyzer shows captured signals or the output of the simulations enabling in-depth analysis to be completed on all the layers of the protocol. The maturity and industry deployment of Lnk’s tools enable them to drive confidence in SLIMbus adoption, increase design productivity and accelerate the learning curve for SLIMbus. LnK will further enhance their SLIMbus support by providing customer evaluation platforms.

The Serial Low-power Inter-chip Media Bus (SLIMbus™) is a standard interface between baseband or application processors and peripheral components in mobile platforms. It simplifies mobile system design by merging digital audio and control data into a single bus structure. Developed by the MIPI, an open membership organization that includes leading companies in the mobile industry, SLIMbus uses a multi-drop bus topology that significantly reduces bus interconnect wiring and costs, and allows an array of devices and device types to be connected.

“As a SLIMbus Specification Member we are committed to supporting the growth of the SLIMbus standard and are currently working with major chip design companies to support their adoption and product deployment”, said Xavier Lambrecht, chief executive officer of LnK and chairman of the MIPI Working Group that developed the SLIMbus standard. “By collaborating with Orange Tree we were able to quickly make available our tools, IP and know-how on a robust and scalable industrial platform.”

Optimized to LnK’s specification, Orange Tree’s ZestSC1 hardware interconnect module and software bundle provides a high performance interconnect platform between a system and host. The modules feature a high speed USB 2.0, I/O rich interface and a high density Xilinx FPGA. The FPGA enables real-time pre and post processing and hosts LnK’s SLIMbus IP. Through the integration of LnK’s IP and know-how with Orange Tree’s embedded solutions, SLIMbus customers have access to a range of off-the-shelf, test and verification products for mobile platform inter-chip bus design.

Based on the ZestSC1, LnK’s hardware traffic generator/ analyzer performs an 8x oversampling at the analyzer side at full SLIMbus speed whilst the traffic generator is streaming out data. The high-speed USB connection is capable of streaming captured data or traffic generator data at 25MB/s for continuous capture and record. The small footprint and option to power from USB makes the solution highly mobile. Johan Klewais, technical director and co founder of LnK said, “The comprehensive communication library supplied by Orange Tree made it very easy to integrate the ZestSC1 with our software. We can control our IP, exchange data but also download IP code into the FPGA every time we start the tool.”

SLIMbus has been developed through the collaborative efforts of leading handset manufacturers, peripheral component manufacturers and microprocessor vendors in the mobile industry. It represents a step change for audio and control interconnects and delivers significantly more audio capacity than existing I²S and other PCM digital audio busses. SLIMbus features an independent messaging channel that offers faster communication than today’s I²C and SPI and require just two wires to support these features. Offering up to 28Mb/s of scalable bandwidth, SLIMbus enables the full flexibility of mixing multiple audio sample rates and control streams to dynamically meet varying system needs.

“LnK are leading the delivery of test and verification solutions that will support the rapidly growing adoption of SLIMbus“, said Charles Sweeney, director and founder at Orange Tree Technologies. “To meet the demanding specifications of LnK we were able to provide custom features in our Zest series of interconnect modules that are optimized for the SLIMbus standard.”

For further SLIMbus roadmap information, pricing and availability of LnK’s SLIMbus test and verification products please contact Email Contact or visit www.lnk-tools.com. For more information about Orange Tree’s Zest Series interconnect modules, contact Orange Tree at Email Contact or visit www.orangetreetech.com.

About Orange Tree
Orange Tree Technologies is a board level embedded hardware and software company specializing in FPGA technology and system-host communications interconnect. Used by some of the world's leading technology companies our products and services help address the challenges of convergence in the defense, industrial, scientific and consumer electronics markets.
Orange Tree Technologies has been providing FPGA based system interconnect solutions since 2001. Its product strategy concentrates on innovative deployments of high density FPGAs coupled with high performance bus technology and proprietary IP. OEM engagements are supported through customization via Orange Tree’s dedicated design services function. Headquartered in Oxfordshire, UK, Orange Tree Technologies is a privately held company and operates internationally. For more information visit www.orangetreetech.com

About LnK
An active MIPI contributor member, LnK has been dedicated to providing test and verification solutions for SLIMbus since 2005 and its founders have been a driving force behind the SLIMbus specification. Its SLIMbus product suite is used by some of the world’s leading semiconductor companies and handset makers, and LnK has extensive knowledge in system architecture, hardware IP design, embedded software and validation/verification software (WUSB, USB, BToUWB). LnK is located in Romsée, Belgium and its wider focus is on providing test and verification solutions for multiple MIPI interfaces. For more information visit www.lnk-tools.com.

About The MIPI Alliance
The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance is an open membership organization that includes leading companies in the mobile industry that share the objective of defining and promoting open specifications for interfaces in mobile terminals. MIPI Specifications establish standards for hardware and software interfaces between the processors and peripherals typically found in mobile terminal systems. By defining such standards and encouraging their adoption throughout the industry value chain, the MIPI Alliance intends to reduce fragmentation and improve interoperability among system components, benefiting the entire mobile industry.

About MIPI Members
More than 130 member companies participate in the MIPI Alliance, including nearly every leading supplier of mobile phones, applications processors, baseband modems, display panels, camera sensors, and audio and power peripherals. A complete list of member companies can be found at www.mipi.org