March 10, 2009 -- K-Micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics) has announced the availability of development systems for the MIPS32 24Kf processors to speed up the hardware and software development time associated with complex ASIC designs.

The CatsEye Development system includes all the functions needed to make a complete CPU subsystem for a variety of applications ranging from internet equipment such as routers and gateways, to entertainment devices such as media players and servers. The development system enables K-micro customers to do concurrent hardware and software designs and verify functionality before committing to the final ASIC chip. This approach results in a much shorter development time because all the core functions have already been developed, tested, and proven to interoperate together. Equally important is the reduced time to production since the software was developed and debugged concurrently with the hardware. The development systems' OCP interface offers the flexibility to add specific functionality to the chip and verify the operation quickly.

The development system contains a board with a CatsEye chip mounted on it, along with a variety of interfaces such as memory controller, Flash memory controller, 2-Gbit Ethernets, OCP interfaces used to add other IP to the design, 3 UARTS, a PCI Express device, as well as many GPIO pins that can be used to generate additional interfaces. K-micro customers can use the CatsEye development system during the design phase of their ASICs or rent the boards if they will need them for an extended time period.