x86 System-On-Chip Devices Target Consumer Applications

Designed to deliver cost-effective PC functionaility in a single chip, the STPC Atlas, Consumer-II and Elite are the newest members of the STPC family of x86 SoCs. Fabricated in 0.25-micron technology, they contain a comprehensive array of standard functions, including ISA and PCI controllers, an IDE port, a SDRAM memory controller, and a JTAG port. The Consumer-II and Atlas also include high performance graphics and video functions, while the Elite includes a 16-line general-purpose I/O block. Additionally, the Atlas incorporates I/O functions such as PS/2 keyboard and mouse controllers, two UARTs, a parallel port, dual-port USB host hub, and a PCMCIA controller.
At the heart of the STPC devices is a 64-bit, 133-MHz processor block. This contains the 64-bit SDRAM controller, a bus mastering EIDE controller and a high-speed PCI local bus controller. All of the devices support up to 128 MB SDRAM.
The Consumer-II and Atlas employ a VGA/SVGA-compatible graphics accelerator and video input port and video pipeline to facilitate combining video and graphics windows. In addition, the Consumer-II has a PAL/NTSC encoder and flicker filter, making it well suited for low-cost appliances using a TV as the display medium. The Atlas features a digital TFT LCD panel interface, making it suited for Web-pad, Web-phone, POS, Internet and thin-client terminals. Pricing is set at less than $38 each/10,000 for the STPC Atlas, less than $33 for the STPC Consumer-II and less than $26 for the STPC Elite.