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I did not attend the 30-minute talk on "Customizable Processor Basics" given at the Design Automation Conference by Chris Rowen, Tensilica founder and now Cadence fellow.  It was not due to lack of interest - it was because the Cadence Theater was so packed that I couldn't get close to it.

This talk was, in short, an excellent introduction to the technology behind Tensilica, which was purchased by Cadence in April 2013. Fortunately for those of us who missed it, an audio recording of the talk with slides is available at the Cadence DAC web site. A brief summary follows.

Quick background: Tensilica pioneered the development of highly specialized, programmable dataplane IP that works synergistically with industry-standard embedded CPU architectures. These customizable IP cores, called Xtensa Dataplane Processing Units (DPUs), support a wide range of embedded data and signal processing applications. Tensilica also developed pre-customized, application-specific DPU subsystems for high-volume applications such as mobile wireless, network infrastructure, auto infotainment, and home applications.

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