Processor Watch

November 29, 2004

Editor: Tom R. Halfhill

In this issue:

ARM Debuts Logical V7
Max Baron - Principal Analyst  {11/29/2004}

Intellectual property vendors don’t have it so easy. In a world trying to find its way back to recovery, OEMs expect more performance for less cost and more uptime from the same battery. Lacking sufficient development funds or creativity, some IP vendors are finding themselves boxed in; they have no cores in the oven, and their existing cores are facing an ever shrinking slice of a narrow market that can still use them.

ARM has chosen this scenario to do the exact opposite: within a few months the company has announced OptimoDE, the first product emerging out of ARM’s July acquisition of a division of Adelante Technologies in Belgium—an acquisition that included A|RT coprocessor design tools plus the Belgium engineering group.

Microprocessor Report readers can access the full story (9 pages, 5 graphics) here: www.mdronline.com/mpr/h/2004/1129/184801.html. To find out more about Microprocessor Report, please visit: www.mdronline.com.

ARM’s Asynchronous Handshake
Tom R. Halfhill - Senior Editor  {11/29/2004}

Asynchronous logic is one of those promising technologies that seem perpetually just around the corner, like artificial intelligence, reliable speech recognition, and reconfigurable logic. Universities pour forth a steady stream of papers on the subject. Academicians and corporate scientists hobnob at brainy conferences. Investors sink money into startup companies that stall just short of commercial success. Reporters and analysts write thrilling articles about how the technology is about to turn the corner.

From its roots in the 1950s, asynchronous logic has captivated circuit designers who yearn to break the bonds of clock-timed logic and create free-running processors that work at their own pace. It’s been done many times, in many different ways, but conventional synchronous technology is too entrenched. In the past, asynchronous processors haven’t offered enough advantages over conventional processors to make significant headway in the marketplace. Now, ARM and Handshake Solutions (a line of business within Royal Philips Electronics in the Netherlands) think conditions are changing in favor of asynchronous logic—at least on a small scale that promises some hope of commercial success.

Although some asynchronous-logic projects strive for higher throughput, ARM and Handshake Solutions are trying to reduce power consumption, silicon costs, and electromagnetic interference (EMI). Those goals are vital for deeply embedded processors in such applications as smartcards, control-area networks (CAN), and wireless communications devices.

A Philips asynchronous-logic project known as Tangram was regrouped as Handshake Solutions within the Philips Technology Incubator. As a newly minted ARM licensee, Handshake Solutions has been working closely with ARM to design a fully asynchronous ARM9 processor core that ARM will license commercially in 1Q05. The asynchronous core is compatible with the ARMv5TE instruction-set architecture and is a wholly new member of the ARM9 family, not simply an asynchronous port of an existing ARM9 design. A lead customer (as yet undisclosed) is about to license the core.

ARM and Handshake Solutions won’t release performance details until later this year, but the new core is supposed to consume significantly less power and emit much less EMI than a synchronous ARM9 core. Microprocessor Report’s analysis of previous asynchronous designs and other factors indicates the new ARM9 core might use only 30–50% as much power as a synchronous ARM9 with similar performance.

Microprocessor Report readers can access the full story (5 pages, 3 graphics) here: www.mdronline.com/mpr/h/2004/1129/184802.html. To find out more about Microprocessor Report, please visit: www.mdronline.com.

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