F Re Esca Le S Em Ic Onduc to R, I Nc .
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. WHITE PAPER: Motorola® ColdFire™ VL RISC PROCESSORS Enabling the Next Generation of Advanced Consumer Electronics . c August 1996 n I , r o t c u d n o c i m e S e l a c s e e r F Motorola ColdFire VL RISC Processors 1 For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. Table of Contents Overview ....................................................................... 3 The Evolving Embedded Market for Advanced Consumer Electronics ....4 The Home-Based Digital Office .........................................................5 . Mass Storage to Handle the Digital Tidal Wave .......................................5 . c The PC/TV and a Wired Home ..........................................................6 n I Choosing the Right Processor ...........................................................6 , r o The Changing Buyer-Seller Relationship .................................... 7 t c New Product and Service Models .......................................................8 u d ColdFire -- An Innovative Platform for n a New Generation of Advanced Consumer Electronics ..................... 8 o c The Legacy of the Motorola 68000......................................................9 i m Architectural Overview ................................................................. 10 e S The VL RISC Advantage ............................................................... 11 e l Family Overview ........................................................................ 12 a c Conclusion ....................................................................14 s e e r F Motorola ColdFire VL RISC Processors 2 For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. Overview ColdFire™ VL RISC, Motorola’s newest complement to its world class family of 68000 and PowerPC™ microprocessors, was developed as an enabling technology for burgeoning advanced consumer electronics markets. Many of these markets are experiencing shrinking product development cycles and heavy competitive pressure, forcing companies to seek much more cost effective and complete solutions from their . vendors for embedded control. ColdFire occupies the “sweet spot” between complex instruction set computing c n (CISC) and conventional fixed-length reduced instruction set computing (RISC), striking I , an optimum balance between code density and transistor count. By using Motorola’s r o unique Variable-Length (VL) RISC technology, ColdFire combines the simplicity and t optimal performance of a 32-bit RISC architecture with a memory-saving variable-length c u instruction set. d n o c i m e S e l a c s e e r F Motorola ColdFire VL RISC Processors 3 For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. Variable-Length RISC Architectural Code Complexity Size . CISC Conventional . RISC c n I , r ColdFire o t c u d n o c i m e S e l a c s e e r F Motorola ColdFire VL RISC Processors 4 For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ColdFire’s sophisticated features, such as a completely synthesizable core for flexibility and a robust debug module, shorten development cycles by speeding the transition from prototype to production. But ColdFire’s unique advantage is that it provides the industry’s most streamlined migration path to high-performance RISC. Founded on an optimized subset of the highly successful Motorola 68000 instruction set, ColdFire-based systems leverage the immense body of development tools, software applications, and knowledge amassed over the 68000’s 17-year legacy. In the final analysis, ColdFire can solve the fundamental challenges facing today’s embedded systems developers by . shortening the design cycle and providing a cost-effective path to upgrade the performance c of their products. n I , The Evolving Embedded Market for Consumer Electronics r o t The embedded processor market is in a state of tremendous growth. The embedded c market represents more than seventy-five percent of the annual shipment of microprocessor u d units, and the portion continues to grow, outselling desktop varieties by a three-to-one n margin. The greatest opportunities exist for 32-bit embedded microprocessors in advanced o c applications. According to Desktop Strategies, an industry research firm, total shipments of i 32-bit microprocessors for embedded control applications are expected to grow to more m e than 65 million units in 1996. S A fundamental shift in the embedded market is precipitating this rapid growth. New e l embedded applications represent an evolution in functionality from simple industrial control a functions to today’s radically innovative products that will form the infrastructure of the c s coming digital revolution. e Microprocessor-based products have enabled the convergence of computers, e r communications and consumer electronics, and are fueling the creation of explosive, high- F growth markets for embedded processors. Products such as hardcopy imaging devices, interactive TV set-top boxes, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and communicators, digital office equipment, intelligent videophones, and mass storage will greatly expand the market for embedded processors, as well as challenge system designers when making their choice of a microprocessor architecture. By all accounts, the general and business embedded processor markets are as dynamic as ever. Embedded processors for office automation are expected to grow at a healthy 13 percent pace through 1998, and parts for communications equipment are Motorola ColdFire VL RISC Processors 5 For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. c n cost. software toolsandcurrentsystemsoftware),adequateperformance,cost,part basic selectioncriteriaforprocessors:time-to-market(i.e.,compatibilitywiththird-party estimated toincreaseat29percentannually.OEMcustomersinthesemarketshavefour I , r o t c u d n o c Motorola ColdFire VLRISCProcessors i m e S e l a 6 c s e e r F For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. The Home-Based Digital Office The emergence of the small office/home office (SOHO) market is driving the development of a wide array of new consumer-class microprocessor-based products that will reorganize the workplace and revolutionize the way information is processed, stored, retrieved, transmitted, and received. These consumer class products provide the same functionality as comparable corporate-level products, but at consumer-class prices. The SOHO market has fueled the development of new entry-level office equipment, . such as low-cost laser printers, scanners, and other hardcopy imaging peripherals. These c n products require high performance and energy-efficient designs at a minimal cost to stay I competitive. The SOHO market is also driving the development of new classes of office , r products, such as multifunction peripheral devices (MFPs) that combine hardcopy imaging, o t scanning, facsimile, and copying into an integrated microprocessor-based system. c u The embedded microprocessors in these new intelligent office products incorporate d networking to allow computers to communicate with them, through conventional hardwired n o or wireless serial infrared (SIR) schemes. The processor engines that drive these office c i equipment networks must be powerful, yet economically priced. m Mass Storage to Handle the Digital Tidal Wave e S The digital revolution is spawning enormous databases that continue to expand. e l Recent estimates put the number of electronic documents in U.S. businesses and a c government at close to 400 billion, and growing at 70 billion documents every year. But s that’s only a foreshadow of the coming deluge expected as major segments of society -- e e entertainment, education, science, engineering, medicine and automated manufacturing -- r join the digital tidal wave. F The mass-storage market, now about $100 billion per year, could explode into a trillion-dollar market in 10 years. As manufacturers scramble to develop lower-cost, higher-performance, and higher-capacity mass storage systems, they will be looking to upgrade their embedded processors. Given the inherent cost sensitivity and short design cycles in this growing market, new processor platforms must be economical and easy to work with, yet powerful enough to handle vastly improved read/write channels, higher bandwidth, and an enhanced transfer rate between the drive and host. Motorola ColdFire VL RISC Processors 7 For More Information On This Product, Go to: www.freescale.com Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. The PC/TV and a Wired Home The greatest opportunity for embedded processors in consumer products is starting to emerge in the form of cable TV set-top boxes and combined PC/TV devices. Designed to use the television set for interactive on-line services, these products will give birth to a multi-billion dollar market. Video on demand, on-line gaming, gambling, home banking, and shopping are just some of the applications that will emerge around interactive . capabilities. Analysts forecast that interactive home shopping alone, for example, will . become a 40-billion dollar market within a decade. Analysts also predict that one-third of all c n American households will be receiving interactive services by the end of this century. I The processor-intensive multimedia format of these services places great demands , r on the embedded processor. Multimedia