Alchemy (microarchitecture)
The Alchemy (microarchitecture) is a low power microprocessor design developed by Alchemy Semiconductor implementing the MIPS32 instruction set by MIPS Technologies. The first and only processor implementing it is the Au1 Central processing unit.
Au1-based SoCs
| SoC-Model | Launch | Fab (nm) | Au1 CPU | FPU | GPU | VPU | Datasheet | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| version | Core clock (MHz) | L1 Dcache [kB] |
L1 Icache [kB] |
L2 cache [kB] | ||||||||
| by Alchemy Semiconductor (2000–2002) | ||||||||||||
| Au1000 | MIPS32 R1 | na | na | na | ||||||||
| Au1250 | na | na | na | |||||||||
| Au1500 | na | na | na | |||||||||
| Au1550 | na | na | na | |||||||||
| by AMD (2002–2006) | ||||||||||||
| ? | na | na | na | |||||||||
| by Raza Microelectronics / RMI Corporation (2006–2009) | ||||||||||||
| Au1350 | 2009-01 | na | Mali-200 | na | http://satellite.tmcnet.com/news/2009/01/14/3913483.htm | |||||||
| Au1380 | 2009-01 | na | Mali-200 | na | http://satellite.tmcnet.com/news/2009/01/14/3913483.htm | |||||||
| by NetLogic Microsystems (2009–2011) | ||||||||||||
| ? | na | na | na | |||||||||
| by Broadcom (2011–current) | ||||||||||||
| ? | na | na | na | |||||||||
Products include: AMD Alchemy Au1000 and Au1550, Sun Ray 2 family of thin clients., Several Cowon PMP devices, Dell DRAC5 remote administration cards, AirPort Extreme Base Station, embedded products for networking by Sun Microsystems; 4G Systems MTX-1 AccessCube MeshCube
History
Alchemy Semiconductor was a fabless semiconductor company based in Austin, Texas and founded in May 2000.[1] They purchased a license for the MIPS architecture#MIPS32 instruction set from MIPS Technologies and developed the Au1 microprocessor and the Au1000 and Au1550 SoCs.
Alchemy Semiconductor was acquired by AMD in 2002, which in Summer 2006 sold the Alchemy processor line to Raza Microelectronics. In December 2007, Raza Microelectronics changed its name to RMI Corporation. In June 2009, NetLogic Microsystems acquired RMI for $183.4 million in stock. In September 2011, Broadcom acquired all NetLogic shares in a transaction valued around $3.7bn.
References
- ↑ http://www.insidechips.com/public/3203print.cfm About Alchemy Semiconductor
External links
- Official website at NetLogic Microsystems
- Alchemy page at linux-mips.org