Baseband communications dataplane processing is one of the most demanding environments around. Tensilica’s ConnX Baseband Engine is designed to address this challenge (see the figure). Tensilica calls its architecture a dataplane processing unit (DPU), in contrast with CPUs and DSPs.
The processor cores are based on Tensilica’s Extensa LX. The system includes one scalar core plus eight SIMD cores. Verylong- instruction-word (VLIW) instructions control the scalar core plus an eight-way dual ALU engine and SIMD engine. The system is fed by 160-bit registers and a pair of 128-bit memory interfaces. It can mange up to eight vector divides and two square roots or four complex FIR taps or radix-2 and radix-4 butterfly operations/cycle. Also, it can perform 16 18-bit MAC operations/cycle.
Tensilica delivers custom configurations, so the base system is just the starting point. Options include multiple queue ports and 160-bit FIFOs via the SIMD vector registers. The processor interface can be linked to an AMBA bus, providing access to a wide range of peripheral IP. Connections can use a crossbar switch or bus. It can support multiple memory interfaces as well.
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