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Re: [oc] Xscale, etc. and IP
Aloha!
kinysh asdf wrote:
> Hi Joachim:
>
> Alchemy is AMD.
> But AMD is formed long before StrongARM?
> Or at least I know AMD a long time ago before I even know ARM
Ok, here is the fast time-line (AFAIK):
(1) Digital got a license from ARM to develop their own version of ARM as a
stand alone MCU (not integrated SoC. This became the StrongARM. - A more
pipelined (thereby stronger) version of ARM, but with a extremely good
physical VLSI implementation which resulted in the best MIPS/W performance on
the market.
(2) Somewhere around 1998, Intel bought the Hudson fab from Digital. Included
with this deal (somehow) was the StrongARM design. In other words, Intel ended
up owning the design and manufacturing rights of the StrongARM.
(3) The design team doing the wonders in (1) didn't want to be Intel (shich
might have something to do with Intel not knowing what to do with StrongARM).
The team left and split into two teams.
(4) The two teams formed one startup each: SiByte and Alchemy. Alchemy was
also for a short while associated with Inventra/Mento Graphics.
(5) SiByte and Alchemy independently got the rights from MIPS to develop their
own MCUs based on the MIPS core. Both companies stated that they would produce
MIPS-based MCUs with thge best MIPS/W on the market. Si Byte focusing on
higher performance, networking apps and Alchemy on higher integration/SoC
style apps.
(6) On Embedded Processor Forum 2000, almost exactly 15 months after (3), both
SiByte and Alchemy presented their respective designs. Great stuff, tens of
thousands of clock domains and all kinds of cool VLSI items.
(7) Broadcom acquires SiByte and is now doing very fine NPUs for Broadcom,
see: http://www.broadcom.com/cgi-bin/pr/prps.cgi?id=PR001218
(8) AMD acquires Alchemy which is now doing very fins PDA/embedded MCUs for
AMD, see:
http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA195184
Before and during this time AMD itself have developed their own x86 based
CPUs. When Compaq bought Digital, a large group of Alpha designers left and
went to AMD and has been a good reason for the success of the Athlon CPUs.
Some people also went to Intel and HP to work on IA64.
AFAIK, when Intel bought the Alpha rights from Compaq about a year ago, some
more of what was left of the Alpha team jumped ship to AMD too, and have been
involved in the Hammer/Opteron development.
Also note that Intel basically didn't touch the StrongARM design for years and
it was made in old (0.35u I think) technology and yet continued to beat the
competitors in MIPS/W. Finally, Intel did respin and started development again
and what we now have are the very good Xscale MCUs.
That's my 1 Euro version on the StrongARM/Xscale story. I'm sure I will get
tons of emails correcting this timeline. Bring 'em on!
--
Med vänlig hälsning, Yours
Joachim Strömbergson - Alltid i harmonisk svängning.
VP, Research & Development
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