Integrated Processor Targets Internet Core Applications

First in the company’s VR7700 family of integrated processors, the VR-7701 is a high-performance 64-bit MIPS processor targeted at Internet core applications. The VR7700 processor core builds on the company’s VR5500 superscalar processor architecture by adding 256 KB of on-chip level 2 cache and a high-speed DDR SDRAM memory controller. The VR7701 integrates a 400 MHz VR7700 core with a high-speed PCIx 1.1 bus interface and two 10/100Base Ethernet MACs, as well as several other peripheral functions. A proprietary on-chip bus operates at 200 MHz and supports multiple device ports that provide independent 64-bit read and write data paths to the L2 cache and memory subsystem. With a 1.5V core, the VR7701 consumes less than 5W of power under typical operating conditions and supports either 2.5V or 3.3V I/O signals. The processor is manufactured using the company’s 0.13µ process and is said to be ideal for demanding Internet applications including network switches and routers, RAID storage devices and application servers. The VR7700 core platform can be adapted to support other communications interfaces such as HyperTransport, 3GIO or InfiniBand, and can deliver high-speed Internet access solutions such as Gigabit Ethernet or DSL. Samples of the VR7701 processor are expected to be available in June in a 500-pin ABGA package. It is expected to be available in production quantities in Q4 2002. NEC ELECTRONICS INC., Santa Clara, CA. (408) 588-6000.