Northwich, Cheshire, 2^nd September 2010. Kane Computing Ltd (KCL), today announced that the popular Impulse C to FPGA tool set, that they sell in the UK has now been integrated to Stone Ridge Technology products. The integration enables software developers to write HLL (High Level Language) signal, imaging or data processing algorithms that rapidly compile to optimized RTL (run time language) targeting Stone Ridge’s RDX-11 FPGA board and development kit. For designs with significant non-sequential logic the speed improvements can be 10 – 100x. Compared to hand coded RTL methodologies, the design entry can take two thirds the time and iterations one eighth the time.

According to recent research, up to 1/3 of design teams are considering using an HLL to develop applications for hardware. The most common languages mentioned are C-based. The reasons given are time to prototype, plentiful existing intellectual property, and the fact that the increasing gate count of modern FPGAs makes manual design methods too slow for populating entire systems on a chip. Users from NASA to Wall Street are deploying HLL programmed FPGAs for applications such as image capture and financial feed processing.

Applications currently in use at Stone Ridge using ImpulseC center around high-speed feeds of data, images or signals. The integration to the new RDX development kit brings to reconfigurable computing C programmable cutting-edge FPGA technology with high bandwidth and ample memory to achieve maximum processing power. Specifically regarding accelerated network processing, Stone Ridge boards work with Impulse C to enable software developers to move critical path network interface processes to hardware, where they run faster in multiple streams without the overhead of an operating system.

The integration provides C based links to hardware features and busses on the FPGA and RDX-11 board such that software developers can accelerate on the board without writing hardware controllers. Processes run as custom streaming cores in dedicated FPGA hardware without an operating system, to maximize throughput and reduce power consumption. Packet data integrity is increased when compared to microprocessor based single- or dual-stream solutions.

“Many of our customers were interested in C-based tools. Impulse is a natural choice because of its broad based adoption across many industries and its place in the market.” commented Vincent Natoli, President of Stone Ridge Technology; he continued “We think the option of C-based algorithm development via Impulse’s products will open the door to high performance reconfigurable computing on FPGAs to many groups not trained in HDL’s. Network processing solutions in particular, which we’ve investigated in some detail, will benefit from ANSI-C configurable hardware accelerated solutions that can shave off 10’s of microseconds of latency and deliver improved robustness under load.”

The Stone Ridge/Impulse collaboration is an example of hardware/software co-design where the computational resources are optimized for the software problem being addressed. System teams can contact Stone Ridge and Impulse to evaluate this high-throughput, high-data integrity solution for their specific applications.

About Impulse

Impulse Accelerated Technologies (www.ImpulseC.com) provides C-to-FPGA tools, training and custom solutions. Impulse C has been used to design vision systems, financial feed handlers, encryption systems and database grid accelerators. Impulse products are in use at over half of automotive suppliers, eight of the top ten government contractors, most US government agencies and hundreds of R&D labs worldwide.

About Kane Computing

KCL (www.kanecomputing.co.uk) has been providing Image Processing, DSP and high performance computing products for use in industry, education and research since 1987 and is a Texas Instruments Third Party Partner specialising in consultancy and advice on TI development tools/platforms and image processing applications. KCL have extensive knowledge and experience of providing video compression solutions for many industries particularly for digital video security and high quality broadcast applications. KCL has a policy of continual improvement and operates its business in accordance with the requirements of ISO9001:2000.

About Stone Ridge Technology

Stone Ridge Technology’s  (www.stoneridgetechnology.com) team of physicists, computer scientists and electrical engineers develop and port technical codes to hybrid platforms including multi-core CPU, GPU and FPGAs. The company also offers full systems for reconfigurable computing based on its proprietary FPGA hardware designs.  Headquartered in Bel Air, Maryland, the company has focused efforts in the Oil and Gas, Finance and Bio-informatics sectors.

Realizes Higher Performance and Less Power Consumption in a Compact

Single-Chip Design Targeting Factory Automation Systems, Industrial Drives, Printers and Home Appliances

Duesseldorf, 7 September 2010 — Renesas Electronics, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of two new 32-bit All Flash™ microcontrollers (MCUs), with processing performance of 1024 Dhrystone MIPS (million instructions per second, Note 1) at a clock speed of 200 megahertz (MHz), the world’s highest among the existing 32-bit dual-core MCUs with embedded flash memory. The new MCUs have two built-in CPU core, 64 kilobytes (KB) of random access memory (RAM) available for each core, 2 megabytes (MB) of flash memory and an additional 64KB system RAM are available in a 304-pin fine pitch ball grid array (FBGA) package. Renesas Electronics’ new MCUs, share the following features: (1) Integration of two V850E2M 32-bit CPU cores; (2) Up to 2 megabytes (MB) of flash memory; (3) Expanded peripheral functions including USB, CAN and Ethernet interface as well as increased number of channels for conventional peripherals such as timers and serial interfaces. In addition two single core V850E2M MCUs with up to 1MB flash memory and one built-in V850E2M core are also available.

Recently, manufacturing systems are becoming increasingly highly-precise, faster and more complex to boost the manufacturing capacity of the plants and more complex, MCUs integrated in factory automation (FA) systems, such as motion drives, servo drives and inverters, are required to provide higher performance. In the meantime, it is also important to provide compact MCUs with less power consumption to meet the growing consumer demand for environmentally friendly products.

To address these growing demands, Renesas Electronics developed the new MCUs with the following main features.

(1) Incorporates two 32-bit CPU core with the world’s highest performance

By enhancing the pipeline structure of the company’s existing V850E2 CPU core, Renesas Electronics has strengthened the parallel processing capability required for demanding environments and successfully developed the V850E2M core with high processing performance of 2.56 Dhrystone MIPS per MHz per core, increased by 1.4 times from the company’s previous V850E2 core. By employing two V850E2M core, system designers can realize the world’s highest processing performance of 1024 DMIPS at a clock speed of 200 MHz while still maintaining low power consumption of 0.88 milliwats (mW) per Dhrystone MIPS. The single core is 60 percent less power compared to the dual core. In addition, the V850E2M CPU core extends its floating point units (FPU) to facilitate greater accuracy and range in floating point numbers, making it suitable for information appliances that require high-speed data processing or complex algorithm calculations

(2) Large capacity and high-speed flash memory

The new MCUs incorporate up to 2 MB of flash memory fabricated through scaled-down, high-speed 90 nanometer (nm) process technology. In addition, the new MCUs include flash memory caches for each CPU core that are capable of single-cycle access at 200 MHz, contributing to improvement of overall system speed.

(3) Expanded peripheral functions

In addition to the newly added CAN, USB (Host and Function) and Ethernet interfaces, the new MCUs offer an extensive lineup of peripheral functions, including dramatically increased number of channels for the timers and serial interfaces. The rich lineup of peripheral functions makes it possible for system designers to reduce the number of off-chip components, save board space, and realize compact systems at lower cost. Two external memory busses are also provided to facilitate the development process for ASICs and external memory, contributing to higher performance.

(4) Extensive lineup of software development environment

Renesas Electronics will provide system designers with optimal multi core development environments supporting asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP).

In addition, Prism solution, a multi core software development analysis environment, which allows software engineers to easily assess and realize the full potential of multi core processors without the need to change the source code or additional simulations, is also available from CriticalBlue, provider of embedded multi core software analysis. More information about CriticalBlue’s Prism solution can be found at http://www.criticalblue.com/criticalblue_products/prism.shtml

System designers can choose either a single-core or dual-core MCU product, each MCU employing Renesas Electronics’ state-of-the-art V850E2M CPU core with robust processing capability. Renesas Electronics believes these new MCUs will contribute to development of competitive systems for the fields of FA, Industrial drives, printers and home appliances.

Availability

Mass production is scheduled to begin by the fall of 2011 and is expected to reach combined volume of 2,000,000 units per month by March 2012.

Note 1: Dhrystone

Dhrystone is a benchmarking program used to compare the computing performance. The 1024 Dhrystone MIPS achieved by Renesas Electronics’ new MCUs are based on the MCU Dhrystone benchmark version 2.1.

About Renesas Electronics Europe

Renesas Electronics Europe with its Business Operations Centre located in Duesseldorf, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world’s number one supplier of microcontrollers and a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Renesas Electronics’European structure is comprised of five dedicated business groups serving the region’s key markets: automotive, communications & consumer, industrial, secure MCU applications, and mobile platforms. The business groups are supported by the Engineering Group, which itself includes the Engineering Design Centre; the European Quality Centre that provides technical support to local customers in Europe; and the European Technology Centre to design leading-edge products specifically for the European market. Further information about Renesas Electronics Europe can be found at:www.renesas.eu.