Abstract: The present invention provides an architecture for a platform, which includes (1) gates located in a central area of a die for supporting an application layer; (2) a SerDes region located at one side of the die for holding at least one SerDes device; (3) a Link Layer Controller region, located adjacent the SerDes region and between the SerDes region and the gates, for supporting the at least one SerDes device; and (4) at least one RAM array for supporting the at least one SerDes device, the at least one RAM array being located at least one of adjacent the gates or between the gates and the Link Layer Controller region.

Abstract: An integrated circuit layout is provided, which includes a base platform for an integrated circuit, a processor hardmac and a support memory. The base platform includes a memory matrix having leaf cells arranged in rows and columns. Each column of leaf cells has interface pins that are routed to a common matrix edge and have a common pin order along the matrix edge. The processor hardmac is placed along the memory matrix and has a hardmac edge adjacent the memory matrix edge and a plurality of interface pins for interfacing with corresponding interface pins of the memory matrix. The interface pins of the processor hardmac have the same pin order along the hardmac edge as the interface pins along the matrix edge. The support memory for the processor hardmac is mapped to a portion of the memory matrix along the hardmac edge.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for reading information from a rotating storage medium allows data to be reliably read at high speeds provided the medium meets design specifications. When the rotating storage medium includes significant imperfections which affect the medium's center of mass or otherwise affect its ability to rotate at very high speeds without significant vibration and wobble, the method and apparatus of the present invention allow the imperfect storage medium to be reliably read by at a lower speed. The preferred embodiment of the method detects read errors using the ECC information encoded into the information stored on the rotating storage medium. The method alters the speed the medium in response to the detected read errors. Apparatus is presented which is used to perform the method. The inventive techniques are especially applicable to CD-ROM and DVD technology.