One of the questions I’ve been asked consistently since our first ArcticLink III VX press meeting is “is this really a CSSP?  Isn’t it more of an ASSP?”

In summary: Yes, this is a CSSP.  Here’s why:

Obviously there is no fabric on this chip.  This certainly makes the silicon appear to be closer to an ASSP than an CSSP–I’ll spot you that.  What is different about these devices as compared to ASSPs is that a company couldn’t simply purchase these parts from a catalog distributor, slap it into their system, and have them work.   The primary reason is that these parts require specific drivers and display-specific calibration to operate.  These drivers do things like…

• instruct the CSSP of the display panel resolution it’s attached to

• the bit depth of that panel, along with other panel-specific items

…and the calibration settings do things like…

• VEE HD+ strengths applied to differing lighting conditions

• DPO HD+ settings: what does the calibration look like?  Is the CSSP driving the PWM directly?

…among other things.

Could an OEM or a system designer create these drivers on their own?   With enough time, sure.   Or they could simply have us do it, which we do for them as part of our CSSP engagement process…at no charge.    The OEM gets completely customized drivers plus silicon (and even user level software, should they choose), all for the price of silicon.  Aside from the drivers, the calibration does require our involvement.   So, rest assured, there is a customer-specific activity in delivering the entire solution.

I don’t know of many ASSPs that require such specific calibration, and those that do require them rarely come with those.  And certainly not customized to the individual systems specific characteristics out of the box.

So yeah, this is a CSSP.

PS…we MOST CERTAINLY have not given up on fabric.  No sir.