User:Flibble/Broadcom FirePath

FirePath
Designer	Broadcom
Bits	64
Introduced	2000
Design	RISC
Endianness	Little
Registers
	64

FirePath is a CPU architecture developed by Broadcom optimised for data processing. FirePath's Chief Architect is Sophie Wilson, who had previously co-designed the ARM Architecture. FirePath is currently in use in the hardware of DSL headends such as the xxxxx from xxxxx.

Introduction

what it is
who it's by
example of what it's used in

Technical Details[edit]

VLIW

FirePath supports SIMD, allowing the 64 bit datapath to alternatively perform 2 32 bit, 4 16 bit or 8 8 bit operations simulataneously.

History[edit]

In the late 1990's Acorn Computers started work on a media processing chip, with DSP like features. The project was codenamed ALARM (A Long ARM), due to the longer instruction word used in comparison to Acorn's previously designed ARM Chip. Acorn Computers rebranded as Element 14, and later spun off as a seperate company. Element 14 secured venture capital to develop the chip. Element 14 decided to retarget the chip as a DSL processor. In Oct 2000 Element 14 was bought by Broadcom^[1] and became their DSL Buisness unit.

Acorn (ALARM?)
Element 14
- quote it was meant for video processing
Broadcom
Mention S Wilson

Implementations[edit]

List of chips Architecture is in. Possibly using the marketing name 'Bladerunner', codename 'Santorini', 'Opala'

BCM6410
BCM6411
BCM6420
BCM6421
BCM6510
BCM6513
BCM6515

References[edit]

^ The Telegraph - Chips are up for Element 14's staff millionaires

External Links[edit]

{{Refideas|http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/hi-tech/16154-acorn-legacy-still-earning-billions}}

[1] The Telegraph - Chips are up for Element 14's staff millionaires

[1]