Digital ICs/DSP: CPU Cores In Hard IP Form Occupy Less Than 4 mm2

Aug. 23, 2004

A pair of hard intellectual-property (IP) CPU cores now augments already available synthesizable 32-bit cores. With the MIPS32 4Kc and 4KEc hard cores, designers can economically integrate the high-performance MIPS architecture into digital consumer devices like set-top boxes, digital cameras, and digital televisions. The 4KEc core can run at 175 MHz in TSMC's 180-nm process, and the 4Kc core can run at 190 MHz in SMIC's 180-nm process. Both can be directly licensed. The 4KEc core is 3.99 mm² (including caches of 8 kbytes each for instructions and data), while the 4Kc occupies just 3.42 mm² (including caches of 8 kbytes each). Design kits are available for either core.

MIPS Technologies Inc.www.mips.com/content/Products/Cores/HardIPCores; (650) 567-5000

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.