CAST has an excellent reputation for mainstream IP cores, still offering a wide range that
includes H.264, JPEG, 8051s, AES, UDP, and more. But, as you can see from the articles
below, we are also on top of many new and emerging technologies and our customers are
already employing these effectively.


Consider automotive interface controllers. Having introduced one of the first CAN FD
controller cores years ago—and since licensing that and LIN to over 300 customers—we
continue to advance the market with the fast CAN XL and its security extension CANsec, plus
the even faster (and deterministic) TSN Ethernet. For RISC-V, we provide an award-winning
Functional Safety embedded processor and a family of very competitive ultra-low-power
processor cores.


We also continue to evolve new IP around established technologies, as evidenced by the
clever combination of I2C and SPI in one serial communications controller as described
below. 


With these proven, low-risk IP products, CAST customers can also get royalty-free licensing
and probably the best IP support you’ll find anywhere. If all this sounds beneficial for your
next project, get in touch and let’s talk.


--  Nikos Zervas, CEO

Get two popular serial interface controllers—I2C         and SPI—in one IP core with the new I2CSPI- CTRL I2C and SPI Controller/Target Controller. Many systems use both of these protocols but rarely at the same time, so this core can save resources and simplify integration by letting you switch between I2C and SPI as needed. It  delivers the flexible, multiple-peripherals simplicity of I2C and the faster, lower-latency communication of SPI in a single, efficient, easier-to-use IP core

Read more in our press release and product page.

Upcoming software-defined vehicles and their       zonal architectures introduce new threats to automotive system security. One emerging solution is the CANsec protocol for protecting new CAN XL buses.
The emerging CAN XL protocol falls between signal-oriented CAN FD and service-oriented  high-speed Ethernet networks. It is interoperable with CAN 2.0 and CAN FD but increases data payload size—to 2048 byte—and transmission bit rate—up to 10 Mbit.
In this white paper, researchers at our partner Fraunhofer IPMS describe why CANsec for CAN XL is important and, using the CAN-SEC and CAN-CTRL cores we offer, present a proof of concept. This shows that CANsec makes the encryption and authentication of CAN XL frames possible without latencies or loss of bandwidth.
Read the white paper: CANsec – Security for the Third Generation of the CAN Bus.

Many developers have found the TCP/IP and UDP/IP Hardware Stack IP cores we offer to be versatile, efficient, and low-risk answers to their networking challenges.   Get a quick overview of their benefits in this presentation our Dr. Calliope-Louiza Sotiropoulou       recently gave at several events, then email to
discuss how these cores might be exactly what you’re looking for.  PDF:  The Advantages of Using Hardware Stacks in your ASIC or FPGA Design.

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Ethernet offers deterministic, low-latency communication and is gaining traction for automotive and industrial applications. We began providing TSN IP cores relatively early, and through the past four years have helped many developers learn the advantages and uses of TSN and successfully deploy the TSN IP cores we offer.
From this experience, we have developed a handy TSN Reference Sheet with often-needed technical details for the TSN standard and a guide to TSN IP cores. Download it directly (PDF) or find it on the TSN Switch, Endpoint, or Switched Endpoint IP core pages.

Devices of all types are becoming smarter and getting interconnected. We’ve partnered with one of the leading consultancies for intelligent connected devices — Consult Red
— to provide IP for the challenging systems they build. "CAST and Consult Red are in perfect alignment in striving to give customers innovative, efficient, cost-effective solutions that satisfy real-world problems with high quality and low risk.” — Rahul Mehra, CTO Consult Red
Another evolving tech advance is post-quantum computing (PQC). Because these powerful new machines can easily overcome traditional encryption methods, researchers are now developing new techniques for post-quantum cryptography. We have partnered with emerging firm KiviCore to market the PQC security cores they are developing.
"Our research is breaking new ground with PQC, and CAST is among the best at providing practical, reliable IP cores for exciting new technologies like this.” — Frank Deicke, KiviCore co-founder. Stay tuned for these exciting new products (and let us know if you need them soon.)

Most IP companies promote their customer support as a reason to license IP from them. We       do as well, but we have decades of experience and actual numbers to support our “industry-leading” claim. Consider:         ●   It only takes an average of 1 hour and              35 minutes for an incoming support              request to be reviewed and given to
the most appropriate person for responding to it,         ●   That “most appropriate” person is often the actual IP core developer, and         ●   Our average time for a first response to the submitter is under 15 hours.  Wouldn’t you like to have that level of support for your next project? Read more in this blog post: Delivering a Better Support Experience for IP Customers.

In recent months we've been catching up with partners, industry friends, and customers at
several events in Europe and Asia. See some photos of the CAST team in action below.
And thanks to our regional CAST ambassadors: Incusolution in Korea, Spinnaker Systems 
in Japan, and Pinnacle Design Systems in China.


We hope to catch up with you at our upcoming events (see the next article).

We’re among the RISC-V IP core leaders in two very critical areas: 32-bit Functional Safety and       Ultra-Low-Power Embedded processors. Learn more about RISC-V, the evolving market, and our royalty-free processor core options at the RISC-V  Summit this week in Santa Clara.
(If you still need to register, use this code for a 20% discount:  RVS24CAST20.)
Also, CAST has probably the widest, deepest, and longest set of FPGA vendor partnerships among all the IP providers. Customers have successfully used our technology-agnostic cores with nearly every FPGA device that’s out there. This December we’ll be
participating with one of our partners in the Lattice Semiconductor Developer’s Conference. It's both in-person (in San Jose) and virtual, and we’ll be highlighting live demos of our TSN Ethernet cores. Learn more and register here.
CAST was a very early Design & Reuse  partner and we continue to find their  website and events helpful to our current and potential customers. We’re next participating in the D&R IP-SoC Day in Grenoble, France, on December 10–11, where our Dr.
Sotiropoulou has submitted an intriguing presentation titled Battle of the Bits: Evaluating Lossless Data Compression Algorithms and Cores.

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