MIPS Technologies’ new MIPS32® 1004K™ coherent processing system is the industry’s first embedded multi-threaded, multiprocessor licensable IP core. This multi-core debut marks another performance milestone for MIPS, following last year’s launch of the high-performance MIPS32® 74K™ core—the industry’s first single-threaded processor core to achieve frequencies greater than 1 GHz in 65nm process technology.
The 1004K core was officially launched in April during the Multicore Expo in Santa Clara, California. The 1004K core provides among the best performance efficiency and configurability in a multi-processing system—up to four single- or multi-threaded processors integrated with advanced system coherency. For today’s high-volume embedded applications that need significantly higher performance levels, the 1004K core optimizes CPU performance on a shared memory system, enabling multiple functions and applications to be implemented in a single product—all running concurrently and responsively under symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)-based operating systems.
The 1004K core helps lower SoC development costs, since for many applications, fewer processors are needed than with other multiprocessor solutions. Multi-threading in each CPU provides significant performance gains over single-threaded multiprocessor offerings. A wide array of vertical applications, including digital home entertainment, home networking and office automation, are poised to benefit from coherent multiprocessing with multi-threading.
