Print page
 




Products

ARC® 605 Core

An Ultra Low Power, Ultra Small Configurable CPU


The configurable ARC® 605 processor core is an ideal solution for a wide range of embedded control and computing functions within system-on-chips (SoCs). The core is designed for hard real-time processing, where high speed and deterministic response are required. The highly configurable ARC 605 core is smaller, lower power and provides up to twice the MHz performance of competing cores. Optionally, custom instruction extensions may be incorporated to achieve application performance levels unattainable with fixed architecture cores.



Benefits


Differentiate With Configurability

  • Extend battery life and reduce cost by choosing only the features required
  • De-configure the ARC 605 to create the world's smallest, lowest-power licensable core
  • Create unique custom features through configurability and custom extensions

Differentiate With Performance

  • Achieve 100-times performance improvements for critical routines with user-defined instruction and register extensions
  • Cacheless design and closely coupled (single-cycle) memories provide fast, predictable computation

Reduce Time to Market and Minimize Risk

  • 150+ customers with 300+ million commercially proven customer chips shipping annually
  • Complete development tools and design flow support, including industry-leading co-design
  • Silicon-proven, pre-verified options cut design cycle time

topGo back to the top of the page   


ARC 605 Characteristics


Product characteristics in 0.90μm process*
Max Clock Frequency 500 MHz
Power Consumption 0.03 mW/MHz
Silicon Area 0.09 mm²
*Frequency (worst case condition) is based on TSMC GT. Power (typical condition) and area are based on TSMC LP process. Data is for base configuration, placed and routed design (excluding RAM’s).

topGo back to the top of the page   



ARC 605 Block Diagram



topGo back to the top of the page


Highlights


  • A highly configurable architecture allows SoC designers to include only the processor features that are required for their specific application, resulting in smaller die size and lower power than can be achieved with a fixed core.
  • User-defined instruction and register extensions deliver 5 - 100 times performance improvement of critical routines.
  • Cacheless design and closely coupled (single-cycle) memories provide fast, predictable computation.
  • ARCompact™ 16-/32-bit Instruction Set Architecture reduces code size by up to 40 percent compared to 32-bit-only instruction sets.
  • JTAG debug port and optional embedded hardware breakpoints facilitate software debug.
  • Delivered as synthesizable RTL source code (Verilog®), the ARC 605 core is fully compatible with industry standard design methodologies and tool flows.

topGo back to the top of the page   


ARC® 605 Configurable Core Features


CPU Architecture

  • 5-stage instruction pipeline
  • Static branch prediction
  • 32-bit data, instruction and address buses
  • Scoreboarded data memory pipeline to reduce data stalls
  • Single-cycle instruction CCM (Closely Coupled Memory), 1KB - 512KB
  • Single-cycle data CCM, 2KB - 256KB
  • Configurable endianness
  • Up to 32, two-level interrupts

ARCompact™ ISA

  • 16- and 32-bit instructions for high code density
  • No overhead for switching between 16- and 32-bit
  • Single-cycle instruction execution
  • Up to 128 dual or single operand instruction codes available for user-defined extensions
  • Up to 64 directly addressable core registers and
  • 32 conditional execution codes
  • Flexible addressing modes

Registers

  • 16 or 32 entry register file in base processor, extendible to 60
  • 32-bit auxiliary register-space for single-cycle, unarbitrated data storage and retrieval

Power Management

  • Sleep mode via software instruction
  • Clock gating option
  • High-efficiency pipeline
  • On-chip RAM controls

Host Interface/Debug Features

  • Software and hardware breakpoints with cascadable triggers
  • JTAG interface to host tools
  • Debug host can access all registers and CPU memory
  • Supported by leading debuggers, including Green Hills Software and MetaWare®

System Interface

  • Configurable port complies with industry-standard AMBA or BVCI
  • Slave interfaces exposed for loading optional instruction and data CCMs


Downloads


ARC International pioneered configurable processor technology and is the leader with over 150+ customers worldwide who collectively ship more than 300 million ARC-Based™ chips annually.



Applications

Portable consumer products

  • Digital still cameras
  • Cordless phones
  • Handheld games and toys

Automotive control

  • Chassis and body systems

Mass storage products

  • Disk drives
  • DVD players

Multi-core designs for network applications

  • Packet processing
  • Security accelerators
  • TCP offload engines

8- and 16-bit microcontroller design upgrades


Deeply embedded programmable state machines