- Efficeon
The Efficeon processor is
Transmeta 's second-generation256-bit VLIW design which employs a software engine to convert code written forx86 processors to the nativeinstruction set of the chip (Code Morphing Software, aka CMS). Like its predecessor, the TransmetaCrusoe (a128-bit VLIW architecture), Efficeon stresses computational efficiency, low power consumption, and a low thermal footprint.Efficeon most closely mirrors the feature set of
Intel Pentium 4 processors, although, likeAMD Opteron processors, it supports a fully integratedmemory controller , aHyperTransport IO bus, and theNX bit , or no-executex86 extension to PAE mode.NX bit support is available starting with CMS version 6.0.4.Efficeon's computational performance relative to mobile CPUs like the
Intel Pentium M is thought to be lower, although little appears to be published about the relative performance of these competing processors.Efficeon comes in two
package types: a 783- and a 592-contactball grid array . Its power consumption is moderate (with some consuming as little as 3 watts at 1 GHz and 7 watts at 1.5 GHz), so it can be passively cooled.Two generations of this chip were produced. The first generation (TM8600) was manufactured using a
TSMC 0.13 micrometre process and produced at speeds up to 1.1GHz . The second generation (TM8800 and TM8820) was manufactured using aFujitsu 90 nm process and produced at speeds ranging from 1 GHz to 1.7 GHz).Internally, the Efficeon has two
arithmetic logic unit s, two load/store/add units, two execute units, twofloating-point /MMX/SSE/SSE2 units, onebranch prediction unit, one alias unit, and one control unit. The VLIW core can execute a 256-bit VLIW instruction per cycle, which is called a molecule and has room to store eight 32-bit instructions (called atoms) per cycle.The Efficeon has a 128 KB L1 instruction cache, a 64 KB L1 data cache and a 1 MB L2 cache. All caches are on die.
Additionally the Efficeon CMS (code morphing software) reserves a small portion of main memory (typically 32 MB) for its translation cache of dynamically translated x86 instructions.
Products
* Sharp Actius MM20
* Sharp Actius MP30
* Sharp Mebius Muramasa PC-CV50F
* Sharp MP70G
* Orion's Cluster Workstation
* Microsoft FlexGo Computer
* Elitegroup A532External links
* [http://www.transmeta.com/tech/microip.html Transmeta Microprocessor Technology]
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