Software simplifies multiprocessor designs

ARC International reckons approximately 25% of its customers have used the ARCtangent processor and MetaWare tools in multiprocessor designs.

ARC International reckons that approximately 25% of its customers have used the ARCtangent processor and MetaWare tools in multiprocessor designs in a range of applications including networking, telecommunications and multimedia.

Customers using ARC's processor cores and development software have successfully integrated anywhere from eight to 128 ARCtangent cores into a single chip.

"The use of multiple cores for multiprocessing designs is gaining tremendous momentum", said Andy Haines, Senior Vice President of Marketing at ARC International.

"According to a report from Future Horizons, the average number of processors per chip has increased by more than 100% since 1999.

Today, the average number of processors per chip is six.

We believe the need for programmability and application-specific instruction sets will drive the continued adoption of multiple cores in designs.

With ARC's history of enabling multiprocessor design, we are well positioned to support this growth".

ARC's MetaWare tool suite has been successfully used to develop and deploy numerous multiprocessor designs.

The software features ARC's SeeCode debugger, providing users with an advanced, user-configurable debugger for high-performance applications.

Aiding in the development and debugging of multiprocessor designs, the SeeCode debugger offers a co-ordinated multiprocessor debugging (CMPD) facility, enabling the debug of multiprocessor applications of up to 256 processors in a single debugging session.

The MetaWare tool suite supports ARCtangent, ARM, MIPS and PowerPC.

ARC's success in multiprocessor design is in its ability to provide both an industry-leading processor core as well as software for multiprocessor development and debug.

ARC's multiprocessing solution has been implemented in many applications to date, including applications that feature as many as 128 ARCtangent processor cores.

The ARCtangent processor is a user-customisable RISC/DSP core for ASIC and system-on-chip (SoC) products and comes with a highly optimised tool chain.

The ARCtangent cores are compact in terms of transistor count, making them ideal for multiprocessor applications.

The MetaWare tool suite fully supports the capabilities of both the ARCtangent processor and non-ARC-based processors including multiprocessor debugging and extensibility for processor customisation.

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