Toshiba High Performance Microprocessor User Manual

Toshiba Develops High Performance Microprocessor

Core

-'MeP-h1'is the World's First 1GHz Configurable Processor-

Toshiba Corporation has announced that it has developed a new

high-end

processor

core,

MeP-h1,

the

first

configurable

microprocessor to achieve a 1GHz clock speed. The MeP-h1 is

based on Toshiba's "Media embedded Processor" (MeP)

architecture for digital consumer and other high performance

SoCs. It gives designers the flexibility to customize processors at

the design stage, including the ability to change processor

configurations and add custom instructions to satisfy application

requirements.

The performance of the new core was boosted by increasing the

number of instruction execution pipeline stages to nine, from five in

Toshiba's previous processor core. The new core is also optimized

for design of high-performance customized processors by

integration of a reorder buffer circuit that manages and shortens

waiting cycles for user extension instructions.

The present

implementation of the core was manufactured with 65nanometer

(nm) process technology, and that too contributed to achieving the

1GHz clock speed. The new configurable processor core is

designed with register transfer level description (RTL) and can be

manufactured with other process technology, including 90nm

technology.

Development background:

The market for digital equipment supporting images, audio and

communications

is

growing

fast.

However,

the

required

performance and type of data processing in system LSI differs by

application, and the overall volume of handled data is rapidly

increasing. As a result, there is growing demand for customizable