Case Study: SiCortex achieves first-pass silicon success and industry-leading per-lane power efficiency with Synopsys DesignWare PCI Express IP

High Quality DesignWare IP for PCI Express Helps Enable First Pass Silicon Success

SiCortex, a high-performance computing company that designed the SC5832 power-efficient cluster system, needed to deliver far better performance-per-watt on a tight schedule. The team had no deep PCI Express or mixed-signal expertise and had to implement many PCIe root complex ports while minimizing power and meeting aggressive development timelines.

Synopsys provided its DesignWare x8 Lane PHY and Root Complex IP—a silicon‑proven, fully integrated PCI Express solution with on‑chip PHY debugging and the market’s best per‑lane power (<50 mW). Using this IP let SiCortex implement 100+ PCIe ports, simplify project management, save months of development time, achieve first‑pass silicon success, and realize industry‑leading power efficiency.

SiCortex

Bob Supnik

Vice President