PixelFusion Utilizes ARC Cores Processor in Industry-Leading 76-Million Transistor Chip.Business eDitors and High Tech Writers LONDON & BRISTOL, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2000 ARC Cores and PixelFusion Ltd. today announced that the computer industry's most complex general-purpose chip design to date for applications ranging from graphics and video to network processing implements ARC's user-configurable 32-bit processor. A programmable computing device, PixelFusion's first product, the FUZION(TM) 150, is a 0.25-micron, single-chip, massively parallel See MPP. SIMD (Single Instruction stream Multiple Data stream) A computer that performs one operation on multiple sets of data. It is typically used to add or multiply eight or more sets of numbers at the same time for multimedia encoding and rendering as well as scientific (Single Instruction Multiple Data) processor with 24 megabits of on-chip embedded Inserted into. See embedded system. DRAM. This ultra high-performance chip delivers more than 1.5 trillion operations or 3 billion floating-point operations Noun 1. floating-point operation - an arithmetic operation performed on floating-point numbers; "this computer can perform a million flops per second" flop per second, along with 600 gigabytes per second of on-chip memory bandwidth Memory bandwidth is the rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by a processor. Memory bandwidth is usually expressed in units of bytes/second, though this can vary for systems with natural data sizes that are not a multiple of the commonly used . The FUZION technology allows deployment of a maximum number of transistors for processing data in parallel, giving higher levels of performance to specific computing tasks including graphics, video and networking. FUZION is programmable, and with most of its functionality defined by microcode A set of elementary instructions in a complex instruction set computer (CISC). The microcode resides in a separate high-speed memory and functions as a translation layer between the machine instructions and the circuit level of the computer. , users are able to extend the functions of the parallel array. PixelFusion's FUZION 150 incorporates a number of intellectual property (IP) blocks including the flexible ARC user-customizable processor. ARC's 32-bit microprocessor is essential to the operation of the FUZION chip, as it is used both for managing the hardware elements and as the central controller for the software. PixelFusion took full advantage of the configurability of the ARC core, removing the 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 MAC and using the fast multiplier and barrel shifter (hardware) barrel shifter - A hardware device that can shift or rotate a data word by any number of bits in a single operation. It is implemented like a multiplexor, each output can be connected to any input depending on the shift distance. instead. "ARC's processor is a good technology fit for our architecture," said Ray McConnell, CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. of PixelFusion. "As we are generating a significant amount of silicon real estate, we wanted to have as small a microprocessor core as possible, and the ARC processor fits the bill perfectly. Another key point in our selection of the ARC core was that it is soft IP, which helps us move rapidly from one process technology to the next. And we also discovered that ARC's IP is not just customizable, but extremely user-friendly - it was both fast and easy to implement, which made our design task much more efficient." Robert Terwilliger, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of ARC Cores, added, "PixelFusion's use of our processor core in their demanding, high-performance SIMD chip clearly demonstrates our core's range and flexibility. We pride ourselves on providing customers with an easy-to-use product, which readily adapts to their needs and allows them to get their solutions to market in a timely manner. Together, ARC Cores and PixelFusion represent the future of innovative semiconductor design." About ARC ARC Cores is a leading designer and developer of customizable, high-performance microprocessors and related intellectual property solutions for integrating microprocessors with embedded systems Embedded systems Computer systems that cannot be programmed by the user because they are preprogrammed for a specific task and are buried within the equipment they serve. applications. The ARC processor is an application specific processor or ASP, which can be customized for use in a wide variety of increasingly sophisticated products, including telecommunications, voice and data networking, and consumer electronics products. With ARChitect, an easy to use software program, customers are able to rapidly design and configure the ARC processor. In addition, the ARC processor can be repeatedly tested and verified by the customer at each stage of development, including pre- and post-fabrication, to ensure that the ARC processor is optimized and properly configured to satisfy each customer's requirements. The ARC processor can be manufactured with any semiconductor silicon process, thereby enabling customers of ARC Cores to select the foundry of their choice. The Company licenses its ARC processor and related intellectual property solutions to system original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, and semiconductor vendors, including semiconductor manufacturers and companies that design but do not manufacture semiconductors. For more information, contact +44 20 8236 2800 (UK) or +1 408 360 2120 (USA), e-mail info@arccores.com, or visit http://www.arccores.com. About PixelFusion PixelFusion, a fabless semiconductor company A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices implemented on semiconductor chips. It achieves an advantage by outsourcing the fabrication of the devices to a specialized semiconductor manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry or "fab. , has developed a breakthrough chip architecture called FUZION(TM) that is software-driven and scalable, and will enable the company to achieve performance leadership through several generations of silicon processes. The company was founded in 1997 by leaders in massively parallel computing and high-performance systems. For additional information, contact PixelFusion in the USA at 914/443 5852, in the UK at +44 (0) 1454 878740, e-mail info@pixelfusion.com or visit http://www.pixelfusion.com. |
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