Webinar: Andes SCP – System Control Processor

Title: Webinar: Andes SCP – System Control Processor
Date: 2016-12-14
Content:
Mistakes in hard coded state machines and glue logic require costly and time consuming silicon respins. Andes’ System Control Processor (SCP) reduces your SoC design risk and accelerate design schedule.

In this webinar, Dr. Emerson Hsiao, Senior VP of Andes Technology USA, presented how Andes’ SCP provides

  • Easy post silicon design changes, such as re-ordering boot sequences
  • Post silicon bug fixing without re-spinning your chip
  • Faster and easier design and verification by using C-code instead of RTL

If you are interested in watching this video, please contact info@andestech.com

 
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Weltrend Adopts AndesCore™ in WT8893 Around View Monitor Video Processor Shipping in a Major Sports Utility Vehicle

Andes Solution Enables Weltrend WT8893 a More Cost Effective, Lower Power Alternative to DSP-Based Around View Monitor Designs

【Hsinchu, Taiwan.】 Andes Technology Corporation, the leading Asia-based suppliers of small, low-power, high performance 32-bit embedded CPU cores, announced Weltrend Semiconductor, Inc. a leading fabless semiconductor company based in Hsinchu, Taiwan adopted AndesCore for their WT8893 Around-View Monitor (AVM) chip. The Andes 32-bit CPU core enables the Weltrend WT8893 AVM chip a more cost-effective, lower power alternative to the DSP core typically found in other AVM chip designs—a competitive advantage in a fast growing AVM processor market.

“The competition to win designs in advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) with major automotive electronics system supplier is intense and requires a technical edge,” said Chao-Chee Ku, Ph.D., Senior Director of Product Marketing of Weltrend Semiconductor. “Our WT8893, for example, includes CVBS (color, video, blanking and sync) input from four channel video decoders, four individual contrast/brightness adjustment function, input image position adjustment function to correct the camera assembling error, video image processing, fisheye correction, perspective adjustment, capability to combine front/rear/left/right four images to top view with adjustable image size and boundary fusion processing, as well as other functions. Andes exceeded our expectation in product and service. The core provides savings on area, power and better performance compared to the competitive offerings based on a digital signal processor to perform the same operations. We achieved a technical advantage with Andes’ 32-bit RISC CPU core.”

“From our founding, Andes Technology has architected its AndesCore processors based on input from customers, including Weltrend Semiconductor, a customer since 2009,” said Frankwell Lin, President of Andes. “Our synthesizable general purpose 32-bit embedded processor core N1337 used in WT8893 reflects this response to customer requirements. It comes with a coprocessor interface for FPU unit and software management multi-core instructions and with variety of configuration options including MMU, cache and local memory. It can be configured for performance sensitive applications running embedded Linux or other advanced operating systems. It can also be configured with a memory protection unit (MPU) for real-time operating system (RTOS) applications.”

Growing Market for ADAS 
In an article from Electronics360, “Outsiders’ Make Inroads in ADAS Market,” Akhilesh Kona, analyst for automotive semiconductors at Englewood, Colo. market research firm IHS, Inc. stated. “Chipmakers are developing solutions that will cut down the costs of semiconductor components for mass market volume.” As a result, the article noted that ADAS features such as around-view cameras for self-parking, once offered as a luxury vehicle option, are rapidly becoming standard in most cars across the globe. With this widespread adoption, IHS forecasts ADAS revenue from semiconductors and sensors will reach $4.0 billion by 2020. ADAS chip and sensor revenue was forecasted to grow to $1.9 billion in 2015, up from $1.6 billion in 2014.

About Weltrend Semiconductor 
Founded in 1989 in the “Silicon Valley of Taiwan”, the Science-Based Industrial Park (SBIP) in Hsinchu, Weltrend (TAIEX: 2436) is a leading fabless semiconductor company, also known as IC design house, specializing in the planning, design, testing, application development and distribution of mixed-signal/digital IC products across multiple applications. 
For more information about Weltrend Semiconductor, please visit http://www.weltrend.com

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Andes Technology Corporation Announces a Design Win in ITE Tech. Inc. IT835X Series Sensor Hub Chips Targeting the High Growth Wearable & IoT Market

Andes N801 CPU Core Executes ITE’s Sensor Fusion Algorithm for Accelerometer, Gyroscope, and Magnetometer to Greatly Reduce Wearable Power Consumption

【Hsinchu, Taiwan.】 Andes Technology Corporation, the leading Asia-based suppliers of small, low-power, high performance 32-bit embedded CPU cores, announced that its N801 CPU core has been designed into the IT835X sensor hub chip from ITE Tech. Inc. based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Andes N801 32-bit CPU core executes ITE’s sensor fusion algorithm for accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer-core elements found in most wearable devices. Andes N801’s best in class MIPS/mW specification enables the IT835X to achieve reduced power consumption while providing the high performance the sensor fusion algorithm demands.

“We’re very proud of our sensor hub system-on-chip (SoC),” stated Mr. Lawrence Liu, General Manager-Business Division at ITE Tech. Inc. “Soon after we launched the chip, it won several OEMs’ design for mobile device application. Our choice of the Andes N8 CPU core with its small gate count and superior MIPS-per-mWatt performance helps make the IT835X sensor hub chip a competitive offering to win customers in the fast growing sensor hub market. With the Andes N8 32-bit MCU, the IT835X operates independently to integrate sensing information and significantly reduces the burden on the system CPU to achieve the low-power requirements of smartphones, tablets and wearable devices.”

“We are extremely pleased that ITE Tech chose the N801 as the central processor in their IT835X sensor hub chip,” said Al Kuo-Chi Lin, Vice President of Andes Technology Corp. “Sensor hubs are key elements in wearable electronics to help reduce the applications processor’s load. The AndesCore™ series offer many features for wearable electronics. They include CoDense™ for very compact code size; StackSafe for automatic detection of stack overflow; PowerBrake for a purely digital way to scale frequency and power without a clock divider; FastWakeUp for Automatic CPU state save/restore for fast power-down/power-up; and FlashFetch, which is separate IP to speed up internal Flash and allow execute-in-place external Flash support. Andes Custom Extension (ACE) provides programmable acceleration and energy reduction through the use of custom instructions.”

Wearable Application
In the paper “ZOE: A Cloud-less Dialog-enabled Continuous Sensing Wearable Exploiting Heterogeneous Computation,” Nicholas D. Lane, et al detail a match-box sized lapel-worn sensor that continuously senses data to determine three major variables: Personal Sensing-physical activity, transport (car, train, etc.), and stress; Social Sensing-conversations with others; and Place Sensing-work or home. Zoe is built around three processors: an applications processor running the algorithms that analyze data from the accelerometer and gyroscope sensor hub (an IT835X with Andes N8) that the one applications processor. High Growth Wearable Market According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 27.4 million units during the 2015 holiday quarter, besting 4Q14 levels by 126.9 percent. For the full year, vendors shipped a total of 78.1 million units, up a strong 171.6 percent over 2014. “Triple-digit growth highlights growing interest in the wearables market from both end-users and vendors,” noted Ramon Llamas, Research Manager for IDC’s Wearables team. “It shows that wearables are not just for the technophiles and early adopters; wearables can exist and are welcome in the mass market. And since wearables have yet to fully penetrate the mass market, there is still plenty of room for growth in multiple vectors: new vendors, form factors, applications, and use cases. This will help propel the market further.”

About ITE Tech. Inc. 
ITE Tech. Inc. (abbreviated as ITE) is a professional fabless IC design house, established in 1996 and headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. ITE is well known as the global leader in Super I/O as well as Keyboard and Embedded Controller technology. The market share of ITE’s Super I/O products, adopted by many well-known PC manufactures, has been over 40 percent worldwide. Following steady growth, ITE is gradually expanding its product line and technology expertise. Currently ITE employs many highly qualified engineers specializing in software/hardware development on PC/NB Controller, Digital TV Receiver Controller, Multimedia Controller, and Analog IC as well as marketing talents. After many years of technology integration, ITE has developed much advanced Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP) and highly integrated system software/hardware technology. Through the combination of diverse products, a total solution can be provided to customers by the concept of system platform. Moreover, ITE strategically cooperates with globally leading suppliers to enhance final product development and speed the Time-to-Market schedule. After growing with customers, ITE provides high quality products to customers thereby creating a win-win situation for both. For more information about ITE Technology, Inc., please visit http://www.ite.com.tw/en/. 

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Andes Technology Corporation Announces Quick-Start Design Package That Significantly Reduces Time to Market of SoC Designs

Solution Reduces the Time Consuming and Error Prone Task of Creating and Verifying Glue Logic to Integrate Disparate Elements of a SoC Design

【Hsinchu, Taiwan.】 Andes Technology Corporation, the leading Asia-based supplier of small, low-power, high performance 32-bit embedded CPU cores, today announced the Quick-Start Design Package, a complete solution that significantly reduces time to market for SoC designs. The package includes the new AndesCore™ N650 CPU IP, AndeShape™ AE100 Platform IP, and AndeSight™ IDE software development environment. The new compact N650 CPU provides the performance-efficiency needed for entry-level SoC, and the new Platform IP offers several highly-optimized peripherals and the bus fabric that SoCs require to surround and enable customer logic. By pre-integrating and pre-verifying processor, fabric, and peripherals, the package jump-starts customer’s SoC projects with a solid foundation and reduces custom glue logic design teams need to create. Instead of hardwired control logic, customers can use software created with AndeSight™ IDE to debug the SoC and control the various peripherals.

“Time-to-market is a major concern for every SoC design and one task that slows a design progress is writing RTL code for developing standard IP blocks, integrating them, and spending 70 percent additional effort in verification,” said Frankwell Jyh-Ming Lin, President of Andes Technology Corp. “The Quick-Start Design Package provides an optimized plug and play solution that saves effort developing common functions that are not providing any significant added value to their final design. CPU based system using software to control the peripheral elements reduces risk for SoC designs by eliminating the need to hardwire everything.”

“By running control software on the new Andes N650 CPU IP, design teams reduce their risk considerably and shorten their silicon development schedule,” said Charlie Hong-Men Su, Ph.D., Andes Technology CTO and Senior Vice President of R&D. “For example, it’s a simple software revision to change the configuration of PCIe, DDR boot sequence, and other functions post-silicon. In addition to facilitating software development and optimization, the AndeSight™ IDE allows access to the entire system for chip-level debugging through the JTAG interface. By re-using the production-quality processor and peripheral controllers, and extensible bus fabric, the Quick-Start Design Packagereduces design teams’ risk of a silicon respin.”

About the Quick-Start Design Package Solution
The individual elements of the Quick-Start Design Package—new AndesCore™ N650 CPU IP, AndeShape™ AE100 Platform IP, and AndeSight™ IDE software development environment—come with their own unique features. The new N650 CPU core is a 3-stage pipeline architecture with 16 general-purpose registers and multiply and divide instructions. The core delivers 25 percent better DMIPS/MHz performance and 40 percent better DMIPS/mW power efficiency than its competitive counterpart in the TSMC 90LP process.

The N650 CPU IP core has memory mapped I/O, a 32-bit wide AHB-Lite bus, up to 32 vectored interrupts, 4-priority nested interrupts, and power management instructions—essential for power sensitive designs. The core comes with Embedded Debug Module, 2-wire Serial Debug Port and up to 8 breakpoints/watchpoints.

The new AE100 Platform IP features a new AHB Configurable Fabric with 24-bit address width and 32-bit data width. It supports up to 8 AHB masters, up to 30 AHB slaves and up to 31 APB slaves. Components of the fabric include AHB-Lite master multiplexer, AHB-Lite decoder and AHB-to-APB bridge. Other peripherals included are a Low-latency RAM Bridge, general purpose I/O (GPIO), watchdog timer, programmable interval timer and UART.

The AndeSight Eclipse-based IDE provides a fully functional Andes C and C++ integrated development environment that enables managed build system. It comes with a profiler, code coverage, code size analysis, chip profile, in-system programming, and advanced debugging. The tool chain includes compiler, assembler, linker, loader, libraries, and debugger. Also provided are a core simulator, pre-defined models of AndeShape™ SoC platform, and external plugin APIs.

Availability
The Quick-Start Design Package will be available the third quarter of this year. The Andes Quick-Start license includes the following:

  • AndesCore™ N650 CPU IP
  • AndeShape™AE100 Platform IP
  • AndeSight™ IDE Software Development Environment

Also available is either a full-featured ADP-XC7 or a compact Corvette F1 (Arduino-Compatible) optional development board along with Andes High-value service and support.

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