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AMD Targets Web Pad & PDA Processor Market
According to this
press release
and this article
from The Register
, AMD has leveraged the technology portfolio of recently acquired
Alchemy Semiconductor
to introduce an ultra-low-power processor designed for sub-PC applications.
The chip is based on the Alchemy Au1 core and features, among
other things, an integrated LCD controller and a pair of Secure Digital controllers.
Symbian OS runs exclusively on ARM processors, and with the backing of _everyone_ in the mobile industry, that's a momentum you can't ignore.
Oh, right. Intel has the XScale (next-gen StrongArm) so AMD has to fight back
it's in my head
Strange, we see AMD branching out, moving into what would seem to be an obvious market, and people bitch about it (jeering their desktop procs, etc), and yet, the same crowd can bitch about MS and AOL and Intel (and any other big corp) monopolizing their respective markets.... AMD branching out forces existing players into re-thinking their current and future strategies, creates new opportunities and possibilities, and gives end-users more choices in the marketplace. All kewl... It is always good to hear of additional competitors for my (our) dollars. Go to it, AMD.
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
http://www.alchemysemi.com/product_info/secure_da
grnbrg
I'm always seeing companies targetting the embedded systems and webpad markets with new products, but where are the webpads?
I would have thought in '98 with the amount of press and press releasing surrounding the webpad idea we'd be swimming in low cost options by now and I'd happily be reading slashdot on the couch, but I've been sorely disappointed.
Does anybody have any idea when a mid cost wireless webpad will show up that actually makes this market worth targetting?
an ultra-low-power processor designed for sub-PC applications
What, is it waterproof to 20k leagues? Does it have PING built into the instruction set?
Just wondering...
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
Yes. This is the problem Transmeta tried to address. There are a few embedded x86 processors out there but most of them aren't all that low power. The first "Pentium Compatible" one that springs to mind is the National Semiconductor "Geode". There are also 486 compatible embedded microcontrollers like the AMD SC410/520, and the ZFMicro MachZ.The real problem is that CISC doesn't really lend its self to low power consumtion - too many transistors.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
well yes it is because the Pentium ISA is supposed to be obsolete.
.NET JIT's for ARM x86 IA64 and MIPS 32 Plus MIPS64
no one in their right mind would have predicted Intel or AMD would keep it going this long.
(they want to kill it witness IA64)
MIPS was actually designed for high performace useing a combination of compiler design and Hardware design it was a academic project and they got it right.
ARM was designed to be simple take up as little space as possible for manufacturing and implementation (only 2 engineers did the work to start with) as a by product it means that now with moores law you have a product that burns very little power
there are snags MIPS is more complicated than ARM but once you are over 100 MHz it pays dividends the amount of effort that Digital had to go through to do the StrongARM showed this and again with the StrongARM2 (Intel calls it the Xscale or PX250)
the StrongARM design team did not really like the idea of working for Intel so they went off and created Alchemy and got a 500Mhz part with not much trouble they also stuck on 2 10/100Net ports USB client and Host I2C and serial a pretty nice chip but funding took a hit and they went looking for investors AMD saw the money that Intel was making of StrongARM and thought that little Alchemy was a winner.
once AMD was on board they put a LCD contoller dumped 1 of the 2 network interfaces and bingo you have a better StrongARM than Xscale.
in terms of tools
what do you have on x86 ?
gcc intel and lcc (plus globs of half baked assemblers)
or ARM has: gcc, ARMCC, Greenhills and acorn
compared to MIPS : gcc algor sgi (plus lots of academic compilers)
oh and MS has
java has about the same but with sparc and some hardware implementations
regards
john jones
p.s. did I mention that MIPS is really the ONLY Volume 64bit RISC left after Intel butchery
Just FWIW, here's a couple processor heat numbers:
Desktop AMD AthlonXP 2000+ : 70.0W Max/62.0W typ
Desktop Intel P4 2.0GHz : 75.3W TDP
Desktop Intel P4 2.0A : 52.4W TDP
Mobile AMD Athlon4 1500+ : 25.0W TDP
Mobile Intel P4-M 1.6GHz : 30.0W TDP
Mobile Intel PIII-M 1.2GHz : 22.0W TDP
AMD Alchemy Au1100 400MHz : 0.25W Max
Intel XScale PX250 400MHz : 0.30W Max
Max = Maximum possible real-world power consumed by the chip
Typ = Typical power use under heavy processing
TDP = Thermal Design Power, usually just slightly higher then typical power, though it's defined by the manufacturer
So, just to keep things in perspective, we're talking about these embedded chips using two orders of magnitude less power then even laptop x86 chips. Now, obviously the performance isn't going to be at all the same, but in terms of power, it doesn't make any sense at all to compare the power consumption of either.
Ohh, and just for fun, here's one more chip:
Intel Intanium 800MHz : 130W Max
Regards
Tony