Product category:
Intellectual Property Cores
News Release from: Imagination Technologies | Subject: Meta 122
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 28 February 2005
IP core claims the lead in
multithreading
The Meta 122 IP core is designed for multifunction consumer entertainment products which must provide high performance, both in terms of processing and I/O.
The Meta 122 IP core is the latest version of the multi-million-shipping Meta processor family, targeted at multifunction consumer entertainment (CE) products which must provide high performance, both in terms of processing and I/O Traditional "single" processors spend a lot of time in stall cycles doing nothing - either waiting for data from memory or in the middle of a context switch
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 17 Sep 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Even while the processor executes a useful instruction, the vast majority of the hardware goes unused.
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Meta is the first commercially available licensable IP core supporting hardware multithreading.
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Multithreaded core to gain new compiler
Imagination Technologies is using the CoSy compiler development system from ACE Associated Compiler Experts, as the basis of the next generation compiler for the Meta multithreaded processor core.
A single Meta processor can replace multiple processor cores, providing highly efficient support for concurrent real-time tasks.
Conventional multithreaded processors perform hardware context switches, ie when one thread can no longer run, another immediately runs in its place.
Meta 122 takes this further with superthreading, allowing threads to run in parallel, which enables maximum usage of on-chip resources.
Such an improvement in performance is irrelevant if it cannot be controlled.
To this end, Meta 122 features AMA (automatic MIPS allocation), allowing automatic resource management in hardware, ensuring that each thread of execution is allocated the necessary MIPS and required real-time response.
This allows developers to control the quality of service provided.
Meta 122 is not only a full-featured GPP (general-purpose processor) - it offers many of the features found on high-performance DSP (digital signal processing) devices, with VLIW-like capability for complex DSP operations providing the functionality of up to four instructions combined in a single cycle.
Meta's modular and configurable unified RISC and DSP architecture creates a common real-time environment; as all threads have the same architecture, load balancing and capacity matching become readily soluble problems.
Hardware multithreading allows fast, synchronous, real-time environments to coexist with complex OS and UI environments.
David McBrien, VP Business Development, Imagination Technologies, says: "The window for developing complex multifunction CE devices continues to narrow, development costs continue to rise and verification takes up a significant portion of development time".
"It is therefore imperative for customers to be able to standardise on a flexible technology platform that offers scalable performance and reduces development risk across a complete family of end products".
"The Meta family has already proven its capabilities, becoming the de-facto standard for DAB digital radio, with approximately 70% global market share, and now being deployed in DAB, T-DMB, DVB-T and TV devices".
Application development is as straightforward as developing for a conventional single-threaded processor, with virtually the same development flow.
For processing performance, a four-threaded Meta can typically perform 2DMIPS/MHz, and combine up to four instructions in a single cycle, a 250MHz four-threaded Meta can achieve a peak performance of 1000MIPS.
For DSP capability, vital for multimedia applications, Meta can perform up to four 16bit MACs/cycle or two 32bit MACs/cycle.
Thread and resource scheduling control low-level clock gating; unused resources are switched off on a cycle-by-cycle basis.
System load spread across multiple threads results in an overall lower system clock speed.
Meta has 64bit internal bandwidth for cache and general memory and has a coprocessor interface module, with up to eight read and/or write interfaces allowing for transfers of up to 64bits to a coprocessor per cycle.
Threads can operate synchronously with hardware.
Developers can fine-tune the tradeoff between performance and silicon area by configuring the number of threads and their capability (GPP or DSP), and the use of cache memories and MMU.
Meta has a coherent memory (cache) system unlike multiprocessors that need special cache systems to ensure coherency.
Meta's architecture hides latency, which is important for highly integrated SoCs sharing external memories because it hides both the inherent memory latency and latency caused by sharing the memory.
Meta can do useful work while waiting for memory.
Meta 122 efficiently handles real time events compared with conventional interrupt handling, which can have a large overhead.
Using Meta's Advanced Trigger Processing (ATP), threads can poll or wait for events and respond immediately.
By virtue of Meta being multithreaded, no context save is required, so there is a true one-cycle response without overheads.
Conventional interrupt handling is also supported.
Meta 122 is SoC ready and available for licensing now.
It ships as part of the Meta SoC Processor Platform, alongside the CodeScape Meta Development System, which includes a C/C++ compiler, IDE, with support for Nucleus, Linux, Intent, MeOS and Itron operating systems.
Application software for various consumer multimedia applications is available from third parties as well as from Imagination Technologies' Ensigma Division.
A number of IP platforms targeting specific applications are also available.
Meta's enhanced software development environment enables easier to integrate software components.
Martin Jackson, Chief Technical Officer, Frontier Silicon, says: "Meta is a key component in our Chorus chip that powers over one million DAB digital radios spanning the product spectrum from battery-powered pocket radios to high-end DAB tuners for the home in over 60 different end products".
"Meta has proven its low-power and high-performance credentials, and is now also the basis for our digital TV products".
"We are very excited by the roadmap to higher-performance and lower-power variants".
Francis Charig, Executive Chairman, Tao Group, says: "The architecture of Meta, coupled with the complementary graphics/video IP from Imagination Technologies and Tao's intent software platform is a powerful solution for OEMs and ODMs developing the next generation of consumer multimedia products".
Antun Domic, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Implementation Group at Synopsys, says: "Synopsys Galaxy Design Platform enables designers who incorporate complex IP, such as the innovative Meta processor, to confidently address the challenges of SoC development".
"We are pleased to work with Imagination to ensure the success of our mutual customers".
Markus Levy, Analyst, Microprocessor Report, says: "Several embedded processor companies have been talking about multithreaded architectures, but Imagination is one of the few actually already shipping to customers".
"Furthermore, the Meta processor is the first commercially available multithreaded IP core".
"The Meta processor has already proved itself in high volume real-time systems supporting broadcast and multimedia requirements, including digital radio and digital television receivers".
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