Lexra revs 32-bit MPUs; ARM licenses two cores

Lexra revs 32-bit MPUs; ARM licenses two cores
By Michael Santarini, EE Times
October 15, 2001 (10:20 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011015S0023

Lexra is re-releasing its LX4380 32-bit RISC processor with higher clock speeds: 266 MHz for 0.18 micron and 400 MHz for 0.13 micron. Lexra originally released the core in April with a clock speed of 250 MHz in 0.18 micron and 360 MHz in 0.13 micron.

According to the company, the new clock speeds enable 133-MHz-based system-on-chip (SoC) designs to deliver a performance increase of more than 20 percent, because of a more efficient interface between the CPU and system-level peripherals such as DRAMs and direct-memory-access controller engines.

The company's engineering team fine-tuned the LX4380's pipeline partitioning and floor planning. Lexra claims that the 266-MHz CPU can access data synchronously from the 133-MHz bus at almost three times the rate of a 250-MHz CPU.

The 266-MHz LX4380 was shipped to its first customer in late August. Lexra will make the core available for mass-production in the fourth quarter. A single-proj ect license fee for an RTL version of the core is $568,000.

---

ARM Ltd. (Cambridge, U.K.) has licensed its ARM-946E-S microprocessor core to PrairieComm Inc. (Rolling Meadows, Ill.). And in a separate announcement, ARM said it has licensed its ARM7TDMI microprocessor core to Mobilian Corp. (Portland, Ore.), which will use the core in its TrueRadio chip set.

PrairieComm will use the core in the development of advanced chip set offerings within existing cellular standards and for next-generation (3G) cellular products supporting Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) wireless telephony. The companies said PrairieComm will use the ARM microprocessor core as the foundation for its baseband ICs targeting the European and Asian markets for 3G UMTS mobile communications.

PrairieComm is employing ARM technology in its PCI5110 baseband processor, which enables wideband code-division multiple-access Global System for Mobile Communications and General Packet Radio Service specifications for high-bandwidth cellular communications. Engineering samples of the PCI5110 are available now.

Mobile handsets based on the PrairieComm PCI5110 are able to support high-speed, data-intensive multimedia applications as well as the Wireless Applications Protocol and the Bluetooth specification for short-range wireless connectivity.

Mobilian said it will use the ARM7TDMI in its TruRadio chip set, which is a two-chip integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) solution that can support simultaneous connections to the different wireless systems.

The company claims its TrueRadio system comprises all functional blocks needed to design a complete wireless subsystem for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. That, according to the company, includes analog and digital ICs, firmware, host software, antenna support and cost-optimized reference designs for miniPCI and Cardbus (PCMCIA).

Visit www.prairiecomm.com, www.arm.com and www.mobilian.com for more information.