Processor targets WiFi, LTE Cat-0 & other IoT standards

A typical configuration of the eSi-32X0MP to address wireless/cellular standards comprises an asymmetric dual core processor. One processor is optimised for implementing PHY processing and the second core is optimised for running an advanced protocol stack. However, the processor can be configured with an unlimited number of processors depending on the application. Indeed, an early implementation already in production is a seven core eSi-3250MP for multi-gigabit packet processor acceleration.

The processor‘s PHY core provides advanced DSP acceleration with dual-MAC and SIMD instructions for complex arithmetic as well as fast divide, square root and log calculation acceleration. The second core’s advanced protocol stack accelerates various bit field operations, such as fast insertion and extraction, and a cyclic redundancy checker. The processor sub-systems can be enhanced for symbol level processing including FFT/IFFT, DFT, Viterbi and Turbo decoding using optional hardware accelerators from EnSilica's eSi-Comms IP library. Security layers can be implemented with the aid of a memory protection unit, TRNG and optional hardware accelerators for Snow3G, AES, RSA and ECC from EnSilica’s eSi-Crypto IP library.

For advanced power saving, the eSi-32X0MP implements both clock and power gating. Power gating is supported through a UPF-based design compatible with standard front and back-end EDA tool flows. Load-locked and store-conditional instructions are provided to support inter-core communications. Both the processor and tool chain fully support multicore debug.

Each core can deliver up to 3.72 CoreMark per MHz and, when speed optimised in TSMC’s 28nm HPC process, can be clocked at over 1GHz with a dynamic power of only 14.4µW/MHz per core. When optimised for power the dynamic power for each core is only 5.09µW/MHz.

“The eSi-32X0MP is suitable for implementing low-power WiFi and wireless/cellular IoT standards such as LTE Cat-0,” said Ian Lankshear, CEO, EnSilica “The multicore architecture delivers exceptional processing performance at mature geometries. For example, an 180nm dual core configuration can deliver 500MIPS for a gate count of less than 50k NAND equivalent gates.”

"Adopting the highly compact eSi-32X0MP asymmetric dual processor architecture for our touch screen controllers has facilitated the development of a novel high-performance IC solution for high-end applications without having to move to a more advanced process geometry,” commented Ken Tsui, Vice President, Design Engineering, Solomon Systech.

"The eSi-32X0MP provides us with an optimised platform to address IoT wireless standards with two highly coupled cores, each accelerated for the task in hand but still benefiting from a shared development tool chain,” said Dr Sondur Lakshmipathi, CEO, Mymo Wireless. “Additionally, EnSilica’s eSi-Comms IP suite is fully integrated providing acceleration for symbol level processing operations."