Product category:
Intellectual Property Cores
News Release from: ARC International
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 02 May 2001
Soft core makes for flexible broadband
access
Telesoft Technologies has selected ARC's user-customisable 32bit processor for its most advanced multipurpose broadband access card to date.
Telesoft Technologies has selected ARC's user-customisable 32bit processor for its most advanced multipurpose broadband access card to date ARC's soft technology enables the processor to be downloaded to an FPGA device on the access card at boot-up
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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ARCangel 3 from ARC Cores is a new development platform supporting the latest available FPGAs.
This is a major advantage as the ability to download different logical programs allows functionality of the board to be changed without redesigning the card.
With the different mezzanine line interface modules that can be developed, this helps to make the new card one of the most flexible and futureproof to enter onto the market in recent years.
Telesoft Technologies' products are installed in fixed and mobile telecommunications, and IP networks in more than 70 countries around the world, and are interconnected to all of the world's leading telecommunications operators and providers.
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Novel architecture mixes 16 and 32bit instructions
ARCompact is an innovative instruction set architecture (ISA) from ARC Cores that allows designers to mix 16 and 32bit instructions on its 32bit user-configurable processor.
Telesoft is expanding its range of Open Technologies compact PCI technology solutions, offering system developers the opportunity to provide high-density telecommunications interface and switching equipment.
The new card, using ARC's leading 32bit user-configurable processor, supports interface modules that connect via mezzanine interfaces to the baseboard and support a variety of different line termination interfaces.
Amongst many innovative features, it introduces a radical new architecture based on a close partnership with ARC Cores, in which a range of tasks that would each normally require discrete functional silicon components are collapsed into a single FPGA device.
According to Telesoft's OEM product development manager Keith Driver: "This approach delivers not only the configuration flexibility of ARC's processor but also the possibility to deploy as many processors as required to service the processing load for a particular application without resorting to hardware modifications".
ARC's ARChitect tool can generate VHDL source for the processor, which allows peripheral processor components and memory subsystems to be readily customised to Telesoft's performance and silicon real-estate requirements.
Telesoft's developers found that the ARChitect configuration tool offers a simple mechanism for including and excluding features in the processor description.
The result is a more efficient core that delivers speed, power saving and board-space benefits.
ARC's development tool chain provides faster time-to-market too.
Said Keith Driver: "We are impressed by the speed with which deployment can be achieved, particularly the integration with the MetaWare tool chain for embedded software design.
The integration of the VHDL processor description with other subsystems running on the FPGA is facilitated by the auxiliary register set included in the processor architecture.
We were able to port our in-house operating system to ARC's user-configurable processor with little difficulty and expect software development of on-card applications to follow the same path".
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