Faraday Introduces Next Generation ARM v5 Compliant Ultra High Performance Processor - FA626TE

Circuit & UMC Process Optimizations Enable 800 MHz Performance

Hsinchu, Taiwan, Sunnyvale, California and CAMBRIDGE, UK -- August 14 , 2007 --  Faraday Technology Corporation today launched its first ARM v5 instruction set architecture (ISA) compliant processor – FA626TE, which is a 32-bit RISC with excellent computing and power-efficient capabilities. This powerful processor is specially designed to target the applications like infortainment, PND(Portable navigation device), IP-Set-Top-Box, industrial PC, high-speed network and Storage SoCs. The first hard core which reaches the worst case clock speed at 533MHz is available now in UMC 0.13um process. Faraday expects its next versions for 90nm in UMC, running 667MHz and 800MHz in worst case, to be available in early Q4 and the end of 2007 respectively .

In today's System-on-Chip (SoC) design, the processor not only has the responsibility of running sophisticated applications, but also needs to handle complex algorithms and logic that are risky to build as hardware. From the emerging One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) program to the small but powerful convergence mobile devices, the ARM CPU is at the heart of the computational processing. Therefore, there is an incessant need for high performance processors, even for small consumer devices. For ARM's v5 ARM9 family, to reach any speed beyond 650MHz is only doable at 65nm semiconductor processes; however, that requires very expensive mask cost and lengthy manufacturing time. Faraday's FA626TE is thus designed to enable 667 MHz and 800 MHz clock speed in today's mainstream 90nm process.

"We are very glad with the delivery of this high differentiated v5 processor core . " said Charlie Cheng , Vice President of Marketing at Faraday Technology. "As one of just a few architectural licensees in the ARM ecosystem, it's our responsibility to expand the ARM ISA into new territories, and in this case, reaching beyond 800 MHz to encroach into PowerPC and x86 architecture territories. " he added.

Faraday is experienced in micro-architecture design, synthesis expertise, and optimized layout capability, which are all key factors contributing to the provision of the FA626TE in such a short time. The FA626TE processor, a 32-bit RISC with eight pipeline stages, has separate instruction / data caches and scratchpads, a write buffer, a memory management unit, and a JTAG ICE interface. The FA626TE CPU core uses four AHB or AXI interfaces with configured 32-/64-bit widths to communicate with external memory and devices. For designers, the fully-synthesizable core and the single-phase clock based architecture especially make the SoC integration a very easy task.

"To meet the high clock requirement of the powerful 800MHz FA626TE, we overcome the process and micro-architecture limitations by implementing several advanced design techniques , " said Thomas Hsieh, Associate Vice President of Central R & D at Faraday. "We're developing the solution by using data path optimization, process tuning, specific library and bin sorting to improve core clock speed, but preserves portability, and ease-of-integration. That's how we could implement the ultra high performance FA626TE processor which enables the 800MHz speed in 90nm process." he added.

Availability

The first hard core which reaches the worst case clock speed at 533MHz is available in UMC 0.13um process. Faraday expects its next versions for 90nm in UMC, running 667MHz and 800MHz in worst case, to be available in initial Q4 and the end of 2007 respectively.

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation is a leading silicon IP and fabless ASIC vendor. The company's broad silicon IP portfolio includes 32-bit RISC CPUs, DSPs, MPEG4, H.264, PHYs/Controllers for USB 2.0, Ethe rnet, Serial ATA, PCI Express, Cell Library and Memory Compiler. With more than 700 employees and 2006 revenue of US$171 million, Faraday is one of the largest fabless ASIC companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and it also has a significant presence in other world-wide markets. Headquartered in Taiwan , Faraday has service and support offices around the world, including the U.S. , Japan , Europe, and China . For more information, please visit: www.faraday-tech.com .