CoWare and MIPS Technologies to Automate Application-Optimized Processor Creation; New CoWare CORXpert Enables SoC Designers to Easily Develop Instructions for MIPS Processors for Increased Product Performance.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- CoWare(R), Inc., the leading supplier of electronic system-level (ESL (1) An earlier family of client/server development tools for Windows and OS/2 from Ardent Software (formerly VMARK). It was originally developed by Easel Corporation, which was acquired by VMARK. ) design software and services, and MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) The execution speed of a computer. For example, .5 MIPS is 500,000 instructions per second; 100 MIPS is a hundred million instructions per second. ), a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications, announced today that CoWare has created its first CoWare CORXpert(TM) Personality Kit for the MIPS32(R) 24K(R) Pro Series(R) cores. CoWare CORXpert, introduced in a separate announcement today, is an automated technology that lets designers quickly develop application specific instructions for their MIPS(R) Pro Series cores for improved processor performance and product differentiation Product Differentiation A source of competitive advantage that depends on producing some item that is regarded to have unique and valuable characteristics. . With this product, CoWare provides customers with a solution to easily optimize user-defined instructions for high performance MIPS processors. CORXpert for the 24K Pro Series cores facilitates use of MIPS Technologies' powerful CorExtend(TM) capability, a feature of its Pro Series cores that accelerates software applications running on a MIPS processor by adding new instructions with an optimized computing block tightly coupled to the integer pipeline. Application performance gains of 3x to 10x can typically be realized with the CorExtend capability. Customers can now easily generate all the data necessary to enable significant performance improvements -- while saving the time usually spent manually creating the software models. "CoWare's electronic system-level technology will enable our customers to more easily take advantage of the powerful and flexible CorExtend capability without manual implementation," said Gideon Intrater, vice president of solutions architecture, MIPS Technologies. "In today's cost and time-sensitive markets, product differentiation is essential. We are pleased with this new technology that allows customers to leverage their application expertise by developing custom instructions for our MIPS processors, making their product more competitive in the market." "Especially in the multimedia, wireless and consumer electronics markets, product manufacturers are under increasing pressure to use software as a key differentiator, in turn driving demand for higher performance processors," said A.K. Kalekos, vice president of marketing and business development at CoWare. "CoWare is excited to be working with MIPS Technologies, one of the leading providers of processor IP, to enable increased functionality of their high performance processors. Through this collaboration, customers get the best of both worlds: high performance along with easy customization for their target applications." CORXpert Speeds MIPS Technologies' Customers Time to Market and Drives Product Differentiation Users start by profiling their application code using their existing software development tools. Then they decide which part of the application needs to be accelerated and identify what instructions can be defined to improve performance. Using CORXpert, they can quickly and graphically define the behavior of each new instruction. Pipeline interaction of the instruction with the main processor can also be defined. In some cases, adding a new instruction can be as simple as cutting and pasting the original application code into the instruction-behavior window of the GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. . CORXpert then automatically generates an Instruction Set Simulator An Instruction Set Simulator (ISS) is a simulation model, usually, but by no means always, coded in a high-level language, which mimics the behavior of a mainframe or microprocessor by "reading" instructions and maintaining internal variables which represent the processor's (ISS ISS See Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). ) for the developed instructions and software configuration files and libraries for the existing compiler/tools. This enables the existing software development tools to know about the developed instructions. The next steps include re-running the application, iterating ITerating.com is a Wiki-based software guide, where everyone can find, compare and give reviews to thousands of software products. Founded in October of 2005, and based in New York, ITerating. through profiling and developing additional instructions until the desired performance is reached. CORXpert generates the RTL (Register Transfer Level) A high-level hardware description language (HDL) for defining digital circuits. The circuits are described as a collection of registers, Boolean equations, control logic such as "if-then-else" statements as well as complex event sequences; implementation of the instructions, as well as the interface logic required to integrate the CorExtend block to the main processor. Physical synthesis scripts are created to allow easy access to synthesis tools and to extract information on frequency and area for the target technology. The user can then decide on the optimal trade-off between additional performance and silicon area. Finally, documentation of the additional instructions is created automatically, to provide other software developers with the necessary information to take advantage of the new instructions in their application development. Availability CoWare CORXpert for the MIPS32 24K Pro Series cores is available now from CoWare. For more information, contact your local sales office or visit www.coware.com. About the CorExtend Capability Pro Series cores, featuring the CorExtend capability, enable SoC designers to write their own instruction set extensions and create highly differentiated, highly competitive products. Using standard tools and software, designers can implement instruction extensions to significantly increase performance, reduce power consumption, implement critical operations, and more. With CORXpert this task is made easier than ever. The Pro Series family currently consists of the MIPS32 4KE(TM) Pro core family, MIPS32 M4K(TM) Pro core, MIPS32 4KSd(TM) Pro core, MIPS32 24K Pro core family and the MIPS32 24KE(TM) Pro core family. About CoWare CoWare is the leading supplier of electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services. CoWare offers a comprehensive set of electronic system-level (ESL) tools that enable SoC developers to "differentiate by design" through the creation of system-IP including embedded processors, on-chip buses, and DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive algorithms; the architecture of optimized SoC platforms; and hardware/software co-design. The company's solutions are based on open industry standards including SystemC. CoWare's customers are major systems, semiconductor, and IP companies in the market where consumer electronics, computing, and communications converge. CoWare's corporate investors include ARM Ltd. (LSE LSE - Language Sensitive Editor :ARM)(Nasdaq:ARMHY), Cadence Design Systems (company) Cadence Design Systems - A company that sells electronic design automation software and services. http://cadence.com/. See also Verilog. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :CDN (Content Delivery Network) A system of distributed content on a large intranet or the public Internet in which copies of content are replicated and cached throughout the network. ), STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope) A microscope that can image down to the atomic level. An STM uses a piezoelectric tube with a tiny sharp tip at the end that is moved within nanometers of the object being sampled. ), and Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE SNe Supernovae (astronomy) SNE Sony Corporation (stock symbol) SNE Syndicat National de l'edition (French Publisher's Association) SNE Society for Nutrition Education ). CoWare is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has offices around the world. For more information about CoWare and its products and services, visit http://www.coware.com. About MIPS Technologies MIPS Technologies, Inc., is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. developers and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and can be reached at 650-567-5000 or www.mips.com. CORXpert and LISATek are trademarks of CoWare, Inc. CoWare is a registered trademark of CoWare, Inc., in the United States. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. MIPS, MIPS32, 4K, 4KE, 4KSd, 24K, 24Kc, 24KE, Pro Series and CorExtend are trademarks or registered trademarks of MIPS Technologies, Inc., in the United States and other countries. |
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