About AMIRIX

History of Innovation and Progress

  • 2004 Delivers TimeSys Linux and TimeStorm Development Tools for its AP100 Family of Virtex-II Pro PCI Platform FPGA Development Boards.


  • 2003 Announces Merger with VEMCO Limited of Shad Bay, Nova Scotia, a market leader in the design and manufacture of underwater acoustic telemetry equipment. VEMCO becomes a product division of AMIRIX.


  • 2003 Develops the AP100 PCI Platform FPGA Development Board for Xilinx's Virtex-II Pro™ advanced FPGA to help designers of embedded software and hardware address new challenges in system level integration, or System-on-Chip (SOC). The Virtex-II Pro FPGA brings system level integration to programmable logic and AMIRIX's development board makes this technology more accessible.


  • 2002 Establishes partnerships with selected Systems Integration companies to provide customization services to enhance their standards based solutions.


  • 2002 Develops Hot Swap Board, a 6U cPCI demonstration board, to gain knowledge (both hardware and software) into Hot Swap applications and provide a re-usable board design template for similar board designs.


  • 2002 Develops a PowerQUICC II I/0 Processor Board, a compactPCI (cPCI) board that was produced for SITA, the global information and telecommunications solution provider to the aviation industry, as the processing element for sector specific applications. It mates with a custom backplane (developed by a 3rd party) based on cPCI and Packet Switched Backplane technology.


  • 2001 Wins the Nova Scotia Top Employer of Youth Award from the Conference Board of Canada and is selected as one of the Top Ten Companies to Work for in Atlantic Canada by Atlantic Progress magazine.


  • 2001 Selected as one of seven certified member of Xilinx's Diamond Third Party Design Center Program, a premier version of Xilinx's XPERTS Partner program which focuses on Platform FPGA design. This elite network of global turnkey design services providers address complete system-level integration issues, thereby helping customers take full advantage of Xilinx's next generation Virtex-II Platform FPGAs.


  • 2001 Establishes partnerships with selected Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies to offer Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) complete 'concept to market' product development solutions.


  • 2001 Develops a servo controller board for Medrad, Inc. a custom interface board that provides the motor control functions for several variations of automated injectors. It is used to administer enhancement fluid to patients at a controlled rate during medical imaging procedures (CT, MRI, etc.) using a battery powered dual syringe injector.


  • 2001 Develops a 22-layer printed circuit board for a large telecommunications company. Board features include a QDR SRAM interface running at 155 MHz, 10 ball grid array devices, 4 FPGAs and more than 10,000 nets. One of the FPGAs alone has 1156 pins. The board interfaces with three custom boards and is part of an emulation program for high speed digital packet switching.


  • 2000 Spins-off Digital Signal Processing for Motor Control group to International Rectifier, one of the largest power semiconductor companies in the world.


  • 2000 Begins development of IP Core building blocks. Each core is designed based on years of system integration experience to provide the basic functionality users need, and a core interface that is both simple to use and flexible. The total solution is easily customized to deliver an optimal design for any telecommunications application.


  • 1999 Establishes relationship with Medrad, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative medical devices.


  • 1999 Changes name from Applied Microelectronics to AMIRIX Systems Inc. Moves into new, modern corporate headquarters.


  • 1998 Begins to build up capability in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) for Motor Control.


  • 1996 Incorporates as a for-profit entity. Majority of investment comes from employees.


  • 1996 Develops Thermal Plasma Analyzer (TPA) which was the first Canadian scientific instrument destined for another planet (Mars). The TPA is used to explore uncharted territories of the thermal plasma environment of both the Martian ionosphere and its exosphere.


  • 1996 Develops high frequency tracking system for the materials handling industry that is named one of the "Top Ten New Products" at ID Expo '96 in Chicago.


  • 1995 Develops largest ASIC produced in Canada to date with over 500,000 gates for the NGSP project.


  • 1995 Designs a digital FM exciter, an integral component of a broadcast transmission system, using digital signal processing (DSP) and direct digital synthesis (DDS) to achieve superior signal quality and stability. Wins the "Hot New Product" award at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual tradeshow.


  • 1993 The Weather Channel®'s WeatherStar® 4000 installed in cable headends throughout North America and reaches 70% of 58-million homes.


  • 1991 Begins development work for an advanced signal processor for the Canadian Navy. The Next Generation Signal Processor (NGSP) requires the design and implementation of several large ASICs.


  • 1990 Develops first Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) in Atlantic Canada for Electronic Parking Meter.


  • 1988 Initiates project with The Weather Channel® of Atlanta, Georgia to develop the WeatherStarÒ 4000, an addressable satellite receiver/graphics processor.


  • 1985 Assists university researchers in producing first Integrated Circuit (IC) in Atlantic Canada.


  • 1984 Acquires electronic CAD capability for Printed Circuit Boards, the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada.


  • 1981 Founded as a not-for-profit microelectronics center of excellence (then known as Applied Microelectronics).