Product category:
Intellectual Property Cores
News Release from: MIPS Technologies | Subject: MIPS32 24K cores
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 17 October 2003
Powerful claims for core quartet
MIPS Technologies has revealed further details of the highest performing 32bit synthesisable core family within the embedded market.
MIPS Technologies has revealed details of the highest performing 32bit synthesisable core family within the embedded market The disclosure of four new cores, derivatives of the recently introduced MIPS32 24K microarchitecture, will help engineers quickly achieve their SoC design goals by offering a proven path to silicon through optimised front-to-back end methodologies and industry-standard on-chip interconnects
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 23 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
MIPS at the core of advanced smart cards
New from MIPS Technologies, the MIPS32 4KSc smart card core is a high-performance, synthesisable embedded 32bit processor core for ultra-low-power advanced smart card applications.
TSMC delivers hard core processors for MIPS fans
MIPS Technologies has announced the availability of "hard core" versions of its MIPS32 4Kc and 4Km 32bit processor cores.
MIPS Technologies also introduced a new version of its SOC-it system controller.
Called SOC-it OCP, this version is optimised for the OCP on-chip interconnect technology developed as the native interface for all 24K cores.
OCP-IP defines a high-bandwidth point-to-point interconnect that addresses the performance needs of next-generation SoC designs.
Further reading
64bit soft core has integral floating-point unit
In response to customer demand for a 64bit synthesisable processor core with floating point, MIPS Technologies has introduced the MIPS64 5Kf core.
Boosted performance for 32bit soft core
MIPS Technologies has launched its next generation 32bit, high-performance, low-power core, the MIPS32 4KE family.
MIPS cores join Synopsis IP library
More than 25,000 design engineers who use the Synopsys DesignWare IP library to jump-start their designs will soon have access to the MIPS Technologies highly configurable MIPS32 4KE family of synthes
The SOC-it system architecture solution provides an integrated high performance memory controller (SDR and DDR) and bridging solutions to other bus standards.
By coupling the SOC-it OCP with 24K cores, MIPS Technologies delivers dramatic time-to-market reductions to customers by pre-engineering the highest performance common system components.
System companies are under increasing pressure to reduce product costs while incorporating more features and functionality into next-generation SoCs.
To keep ahead of this product treadmill, engineers are turning to high performance, programmable processors to give a design more headroom so that future upgrades can be implemented in software to reduce the need to develop new silicon.
The MIPS32 24K core family is ideal for these types of performance driven applications, such as integrated digital television, set-top box and DVD devices, which require high performance microprocessors to deliver an optimised user experience.
"SOC designers can use the synthesisable 24K core family to take full advantage of the highest frequency available in 32bit cores and differentiate their products", said Mike Uhler, Chief Technology Officer for MIPS Technologies.
"To minimise the system-level design effort, we have teamed with industry-leading companies to provide customers with tailored design flows and optimised libraries, memories and bus interconnects.
Furthermore, our SOC-it system controller is optimised for OCP to reduce the design requirements by providing pre-validated system level integration".
As with all MIPS-based technologies, the 24K core family offers broad tool and software support only available to products based upon an industry-standard architecture.
There are four 24K cores that offer a variety of configurations to support customer requirements.
All cores include Release 2 features of the MIPS32 architecture that support multiprocessing, enhanced bit-field manipulation, reduced interrupt latency and enhanced cache control.
Each core is designed to serve the performance driven needs of the broadband access, office automation and digital consumer markets, and features a range of options from user extendable instructions to floating point configuration.
The 24Kc core is the base version, incorporating an eight-stage pipeline that is optimised for high performance.
It includes a 32x32 multiply/divide unit and configurable memory management unit with TLB or fixed mapping, and is ideal for next-generation control plane applications.
The 24Kf core includes hardware floating point support that is fully compliant with the IEEE754 standard.
Floating point is a key component of several major applications.
The 24Kc Pro and 24Kf Pro versions are enabled with user extendable instructions, featuring the CorExtend capability.
This facilitates optimisation of algorithms for data-plane style processing within a programmable environment.
CorExtend technology is fully compatible with the industry-standard MIPS32 architecture, so full tool chain support is maintained.
"'We're going to great lengths to ensure 24K licensees will achieve 400 to 550MHz worst case in mainstream 0.13um technologies in a small silicon footprint and within the constraints of tight development schedules", said Victor Peng, Vice President of Engineering for MIPS Technologies.
"Companies that introduce products with more capabilities into the marketplace first have a tremendous benefit over their competitors.
And we intend to give 24K licensees a significant performance and time to market advantage".
MIPS32 24K cores are available to lead customers now and will be generally available for licensing in early 2004.
• MIPS Technologies: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
