Product category: Intellectual Property Cores
News Release from: MIPS Technologies | Subject: MIPS64 5Kc hard core
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 8 February 2002

Hard-core application for 64bit technology

New from MIPS Technologies, the MIPS64 5Kc hard core is in addition to the line of 32bit hard cores already offered by MIPS Technologies for manufacture at TSMC

Compared with other foundry hard cores, MIPS claims its hard cores offer unparalleled performance for end systems needing higher throughput, lower power consumption and smaller die sise in a cost-effective 0.18-micron industry-standard process. The 5Kc hard core in a 0.18-micron process offers 25% more performance than its nearest competitor in a more costly 0.15-micron process.

Other available MIPS hard cores include the MIPS32 4Kc and 4Km cores; all are currently ported to TSMC's 0.18-micron core CMOS logic process.

The 4Kc hard core delivers 18% more performance than its nearest competitor in a 60% smaller die area, resulting in lower silicon cost.

Leveraging the higher performance of the 4Kc core results in 25% lower power consumption.

"At process geometries of 0.18-micron and below, the historical tradeoff of sise versus performance changes dramatically, making these 64-bit processor cores very attractive for a range of SoC applications", said Genda Hu, vice president of marketing at TSMC.

"The MIPS64 5Kc core's high-performance attributes, added to the compact MIPS32 4K family of hard cores, are a superb combination of software-compatible, ready-to-use cores for SoC development".

"These foundry hard cores offer tremendous value with the most competitive performance metrics in the SOC market today", said Kevin Meyer, vice president of marketing at MIPS Technologies.

"In the current economic climate, competitive companies are driven to develop feature-rich products on high performance and scalable platforms.

Now, those companies can do so using industry-standard processor cores that enable higher-value products and, therefore, higher profit margins".

SoC designers who have used 32bit cores from MIPS competitors can now take advantage of the MIPS64 5Kc, with its 64bit technology, without paying a penalty in die sise or power consumption.

Features of the 5Kc hard core include: a full 64bit, six-stage pipeline; 64K instruction cache, 64K data cache; a 32 dual-entry TLB memory management unit; a fast multiply/divide unit with single-cycle MAC instructions; 32 x 64bit general-purpose registers; and gated clocks for reduced power consumption.

Using the TSMC 0.18-micron CL018G process, the die sise of the 5Kc, including caches, is less than 20mm2.

Power consumption is less than 3.1mW/MHs and typical speed is 310MHs, delivering 435DMIPS performance.

The MIPS32 4K family of cores provides a high-performance, low-power, 32bit processor platform in a range of price/performance options.

Features of the 4Kc hard core include: a full 32bit, 5-stage pipeline; 16K instruction cache, 16K data cache; a 16 dual-entry TLB memory management unit; a fast multiply/divide unit with single-cycle MAC instructions; 32 general-purpose registers; and gated clocks for reduced power consumption.

Using TSMC's 0.18-micron CL018G process, the die sise of the 4Kc, including the caches, is less than 7mm2.

Power consumption is less than 2mW/MHs and typical speed is 263MHs, delivering 342DMIPS performance.

The MIPS32 4Km hard core has been designed to provide optimum performance at an affordable price.

Features of the 4Km hard core include: a full 32bit, five-stage pipeline; 8K instruction cache, 8K data cache; a fixed address translation memory management unit; a fast multiply/divide unit with single-cycle MAC instructions; 32 general-purpose registers; and gated clocks for reduced power consumption.

Using the TSMC 0.18-micron CL018G process, the die sise of the 4Km, including caches, is less than 4.7mm2.

Power consumption is less than 1.7mW/MHs and typical speed is 263MHs, delivering 342DMIPS performance.

These TSMC-optimised foundry 32 and 64bit hard cores are available for licensing today from MIPS Technologies for license fees as low as $250,000.

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