Fastest Processor Under 1W?

I don't remember if it's < 1W but does the ADi's Blackfin fit the description ? Some PPC-based solutions should also exist.

yg

--
http://ygdes.com / http://yasep.org

If you ask what are the "best options", that is a bit like asking, "how long is a piece of string"? Is speed the only parameter you wish to optimize? Is this for a real project? I ask that because for any

*real* project there will certainly be other constraints than just speed. For example, if you are concerned with power, the type of external memory used will made a big difference in the system power. Not all processors use the same memory.

When you say things like "DSP functionality would be nice but not necessary", it sounds like you are generating a CPU wish list.

Rick

A multi processor system of 1000000 of nanowatt PICs would be difficult to beat.

What are you trying to do? What options exactly do you need?

Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

If 1 watt is the average available power being able to power down part of the processors at some points will have huge advantages. Look at almost any of the multiprocessor hand held devices. It depends on the distribution of task loads more than anything else.

Regards,

-- Walter Banks Byte Craft Limited

Have a look at Freescale MPC5200B. Within 1W with loads of peripherals,

400MHz PPC (most others - non PPC - would likely need higher clock frequencies to match the horsepowers), more or less mature.

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

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tion ?

Yes, the blackfin is actually as much like a Strongarm chip as anything else. I think it uses around 200 mA at a low voltage, so the CPU power should be well under a Watt.

Oh yeah, what about the StrongARM chips (from Marvel now) or are they included under ARM?

In addition to the DaVinci chips, TI has other, similar devices they call OMAP which are used in a number of PDAs. Basically, look at what is used in PDAs, they should all be under a Watt and will be pretty much the high end of the CPU curve for that power level.

Rick

He didn't have size as a constraint, but I don't think 1,000,000 of any CPU is remotely practical, but then you weren't serious, you were just being you, weren't you?

Oh, crap! I just responded to the troll...

Rick

Quite seriously, the options are pretty open. The application is embedded control, a platform for controlling a range of products. True DSP isn't required, but if I can do MACs efficiently and have some features for streaming data, it'd wouldn't hurt. Application specific peripherals (camera controllers, wireless, etc.) aren't needed. Really the core need is lots of MIPS under 1W.

Why the 1W limit? Battery? Constant load or variable processor load?

w..

What kind of environment? Temp range? Electrical and mechanical noise?

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ny

You still haven't explained the power requirement well. Is the 1 Watt limit for the CPU or for the system? It can make a big difference. How much memory do you need? Heck, you might find a processor is not really the right device at all. Have you considered using an FPGA?

Rick

The whole system is power constrained. 1W isn't a hard limit, but it's roughly what's alloted to the CPU portion of the system.

Commercial - 0-85, no meaningful electrical or mechanical abuse.

This is still very vague..... What display does this drive, and is that inside the 1W budget ? What comms are active - Channels and speed, what other external data streams are active ( ADCs / cameras / compression / ciphers ..) ?

"a platform for controlling a range of products" sounds rather like homework, not a real world problem ?

It would take some quite specialised 'embedded _control_' to NEED anywhere near 1W of power.

-jg

Jim,

In another post he talked about a clean environment.

If we knew the average and peak mips in the application we could do a first order approximation of the standard deviation of the processor requirements. Peak - average is about three standard deviations. If the standard deviation is large enough then a multiple processor solution should be considered as a way to drop power requirements.

There are two ways to design these things, find out how much computing power is possible with the available power. The second way is to look at application requirements and engineer a solution that meets the requirements.

Regards,

-- Walter Banks Byte Craft Limited

LPC3220 and family, includes vector floating point coprocessor

Leon

FPGAs and low power don't currently mix, unless the task is very simple signal processing stuff, then I would look into Actel IGLOO FPGAs. Also, FPGAs require a whole different dev. environment and require HW programmers. They would also be more expensive to mass produce a product with than a simple, low-power uC.

---Matthew Hicks

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I can get a ***lot*** of FPGA running at under 1 Watt! You need to define what you mean by "low power". No, FPGAs will not compete with nanoWatt PICs, but they can do a *very* good job vs a PXA processor.

Rick