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Today,
Cambridge Consultants launches
a web-downloadable toolkit for
its royalty-free RISC processor
core, XAP2. The free-trial software
development kit (SDK) allows
users to write and simulate
application software in C or
assembler, to evaluate the 16-bit
processor’s architecture
for use in an SoC ASIC or FPGA
project - at minimal risk.
Electronic OEMs are increasingly
considering the advantages that
highly-integrated digital or
mixed analogue/digital ASICs
can bring to product designs.
The Cambridge Consultants Ltd
(CCL) XAP2 RISC core and toolkit
offers field-proven technology
that can be implemented in as
little as 12,000 gates - a size
equating to a cost of less than
5 cents/Euro-cents of silicon.
It is available as synthesisable
RTL for use in FPGAs or with
any ASIC silicon foundry offering
a gate library. Unlike many
cores offered as IP, XAP2 has
a licence that requires no royalties
per chip, a feature that can
dramatically reduce bill-of-material
costs for developers.
CCL’s first 16-bit processor
was the 3000-gate XAP1 in 1994.
The XAP2 followed in 1999. Both
XAP cores have been used successfully
in numerous IC projects, with
production volumes over 10 million
units - such as the leading
Bluetooth chip.
The new XAP2 SDK is available
for a free trial download. For
developers new to high-end ASIC
development this is an ideal
way of exploring the hardware/software
and analogue/digital system
partitioning possibilities made
possible by reconfigurable hardware.
It additionally allows evaluation
of the performance of a core
optimised for on-chip use, which
in this case employs a high-throughput
Harvard architecture, as pin-out
issues are of much less consequence
than for a conventional (Von
Neumann) packaged microcontroller.
"Electronic system architectures
are evolving rapidly,"
says Alistair Morfey of CCL's
Sensor ASICs Group. "This
free-trial toolkit allows engineers
to explore the characteristics
and capabilities of reconfigurable
RISC hardware before committing
to the expense of an SoC or
ASIC project."
CCL’s XAP2 SDK runs under
Windows on a PC. It includes
a powerful software development
toolchain that will take a program
written in C or assembler, compile
and link the code, and execute
it on a simulator. When users
decide to take a XAP2 licence,
they have access to a complete
integrated development environment
with rich debugging facilities.
This includes an FPGA-based
hardware emulation tool, and
in-system fault analysis based
on CCL’s patented non-invasive
real-time SIF serial debugging
interface. This accesses all
of XAP2 address space while
the core is running, without
inserting any time delays.
XAP2 provides a Harvard architecture
processor (separate program
and data spaces) that is optimised
for low power consumption. Power
reduction techniques include
an extensive use of single cycle
instructions, with an instruction
set chosen for power efficiency,
and a sleep mode that uses virtually
zero power (implementations
have achieved quiescent current
levels that are so low that
10-year battery lifetimes from
a single button cell are possible).
The architecture and instruction
set also provide powerful arithmetic
functions, for efficiency in
real-time signal processing
applications. Support includes
hardware-accelerated multiply
and divide operations, and a
single-cycle shift barrel shifter
for 32 bit arithmetic.
CCL also offers a XAP2 hardware
emulator card. The XAP2 core
complete with 8kB of RAM can
be contained easily in less
than 20% of the Xilinx XC2V3000
FPGA used in the emulator, leaving
ample space for custom digital
circuitry required for the rest
of the product. It also has
a defined connector interface
for analogue daughter cards,
so that a complete SoC can be
emulated in hardware. FPGA implementations
have been tested at 16MHz, and
much faster speeds have been
achieved in ASIC silicon.
Despite its small size, the
XAP2 core is capable of delivering
high real-time performance,
enough to support a wide range
of applications. These range
from managing protocol stacks
and application software in
wireless systems such as Bluetooth
or ZigBee, to the control and
communications tasks required
for accurate instrumentation
and sensor applications such
as gas meters, touchscreens
and hydrogen-concentration sensors
for fuel-cell cars. It can also
support deeply-embedded products
such as home automation, smart
sensors or industrial measurement
and control systems.
Click
here to download the new
XAP2 toolkit
Click
here for more information
on CCL's ASIC offerings
enquiries
: xap@CambridgeConsultants.com
Click
here to download high resolution
images for use with this release.
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