Tensilica offers free diamond core software development and. Cdns today expanded the high end of its popular tensilica vision dsp product family with the introduction of the cadence tensilica vision q7 dsp delivering up to 1. Verifying tensilicas configurable processor core mentor. Cdns today announced general availability of the 12th generation tensilica xtensa base processor architecture. The tensilica vision p5 dsp is based on the cadence tensilica xtensa architecture, and combines flexible hardware. All the news youre looking for from tensilica, inc. Jul 14, 2016 the winners of the tensilica xtensa embedded dsp design contest have been announced. This course covers fundamentals of tensilica xtensa lx processor architecture and configuration options, software tools, programming, optimization and debug. Tensilica is known for its customizable xtensa configurable processor. Ongoing development of the linux kernel and gnu tools for tensilica s xtensa architecture. Designing socs with configured cores sciencedirect. In its basic form, tensilica s xtensa processor core is a small, fast 32bit processor core with industryleading performance. By using tie, the user can customize the xtensa architecture by adding custom instructions and register files, instantiating tie ports and queues for multiprocessor communication, and adding preconfigured extensions such as tensilicas dsp. He is the former chief architect of tensilica and silicon graphics mips division.
May 15, 2019 the cadence tensilica vision q7 dsp ip doubles vision and ai performance for the automotive, arvr, mobile and surveillance markets. Please keep in mind that only the processor architecture. Tensilica xtensa customizable processors rtos demo using xtensa xplorer ide rtos ports tensilica xtensa customizable processors preamble as of freertos v10. Cadence turns the xtensa architecture up to eleven. Tensilica provides an xtensa processor generator that outputs the processor design in verilog or vhdl given an architecture choice for the processor. Tensilica also has added a processor id register to the instructionset architecture isa that can identify each unique processor integrated on a soc.
It does not support other configurations of the xtensa architecture, but that is probably hopefully easy to implement. The xtensa processor is a configurable and extensible 32bit. Designing socs with configured processor cores is an essential reference for systemonchip designers. The architecture of every xtensa processor is described in a single 662 pages long file. Tensilica, design, and verification ip blogs cadence community. Optimized for simultaneous localization and mapping slam, the. Optimizing a dsp architecture for wireless baseband. Support for the xtensa architecture has already been integrated in most open source software. Tensilica instruction extension refers to the proprietary language that is used to customize tensilica s xtensa processor core architecture by using tie, the user can customize the xtensa architecture by adding custom instructions and register files, instantiating tie ports and queues for multiprocessor communication, and adding preconfigured extensions such as tensilica s dsp. Tensilica war ein unternehmen mit sitz im silicon valley, ein vertreter des kernbereiches.
This chapter and subsequent chapters provide an introduction to a processor isa that s more appropriate for soc design. This course covers fundamentals of tensilica xtensa nx processor architecture and configuration options, software tools, programming, optimization and debug. Also see the related tensilica xtensa software development toolkit users guide, xtensa. To date, industriallyavailable asips such as tensilica xtensa 6, arctangent 7, mips32 m4k 8, and altera niosnios ii 9 have a base architecture with only a limited set of customizable. Xtensa is the registered trademark of tensilica, inc. Tensilica based the diamond 232l on the xtensa 6 because that configurable core has an optional memorymanagement unit mmua feature unavailable with the xtensa. This eases system software development and integration for natively parallel applications that deploy multiple copies of the same configuration of the xtensa processor. Figure 1 tensilicas simulationbased verification environment. Xtensa debugger 5 19892019 lauterbach gmbh introduction this manual serves as a guideline for debugging xtensa cores and describes all processorspecific trace32 settings and features. It is indeed a relief, coming from arm never ending manuals for each processor implementation. Mar 20, 2006 last month tensilica announced a new line of licensable processor cores called the diamond standard family. Cadence announces general availability of tensilica xtensa lx7. Learning objectives after completing this course, you will be able to. The diamond standard and xtensa processor software development environments include complete compiler toolchain, instruction set simulator, performance analysis tools and project management tools.
The xtensa lx7 release eases systemonchip soc design challenges with numerous architectural enhancements such as broader support for the axi protocol and a new integrated dma controller option. The xtensa lx7 architecture makes new technologies available for. Try our sdk software development toolkit for 15 days. Cadence completes acquisition of tensilica apr 24, 20. Embedded insights embedded processing directory tensilica.
It not only can debug many cpus from different makers on one common platform, but also can use jtag emulator standalone writer on the same platform. Xtensa lx is the sixthgeneration xtensa architecture, suc. Find out how you can use tensilica s customizable, extensible processors to speed your soc design. Xtensa lx microprocessor overview handbook a summary of the xtensa lx microprocessor data book for xtensa lx processor cores tensilica, inc. Tensilica and xtensa are registered trademarks of tensilica, inc.
The chapter also discusses the instructionset architecture isa, which is more appropriate for the soc design. Free tensilica xplorer download tensilica xplorer for. Debug up to 10 tensilica xtensa lx cores with a single jtag connection. All cadence standard dsps are based on the xtensa architecture. Informatie eng the xtensa processor architecture is a configurable, extensible, and synthesizable 32bit risc processor core. Nightly build snapshots of buildroot, uboot, and the linux kernel. The winning team members from cmr institute of technology, bengaluru and bangladesh university of engineering and technology, dhaka received a htc desire 620g mobile phone each and the team guide received an apple ipad mini. By using tie, the user can customize the xtensa architecture by adding custom instructions and register files, instantiating tie ports and queues for multiprocessor communication, and adding preconfigured extensions. Processor and soc vendors can select from various processor options and. Tensilica unveils xtensa v architecture design and reuse. See tensilica for dsps and all the processing you need to do in the dataplane dataplane processors dpus. Tensilica processors excel at deeply embedded control tasks as well as application specific tasks like computer vision, audio, communications and speech processing. Verifying tensilicas configurable processor core mentor graphics. You explore topics regarding the xtensa nx processor interfaces.
Figure 1 tensilica s simulationbased verification environment. Vision dsps that handle complex algorithms in imaging, video, computer vision, and neural networks. The tensilica architecture allows programmability after tapeout, allowing extensibility and reducing the risk of silicon respins xtensa dpus provide applicationspecific subsystems for the. The new family is based on tensilicas xtensa family of licensable cores, but there is an important difference between the two families. Tensilica s diamond standard series is a family of codecompatible, preconfigured 32bit microprocessor and dsp intellectual property ip cores based on tensilica s xtensa instruction set architecture isa. It does not support other configurations of the xtensa architecture. Tensilica unveils xtensa v architecture cadence ip. New cadence tensilica vision p5 dsp enables 4k mobile imaging.
Xplorer is a fully integrated gui that incorporates all the software development tools for the tensilica processors. You will learn about the instruction set architecture, programming model, performance estimation and assessment, dma programming and the use of our xtensa imaging library xilib. The xtensa lx7 architecture makes new technologies available for customization by xtensa. You will explore topics in processor architecture and the configurable options of the xtensa nx series processors. Latest xtensa processor innovation platform delivers significant architectural enhancements. In addition to drawing out the issues involved, we illustrate possible solutions to these hardwaredependent software hds problems by drawing on the experience of developing tensilicas xtensa. Together, tensilicas xtensa and diamond processor cores constitute a family of software compatible microprocessors covering an extremely wide performance range from simple control processors, to dsps, to 3way superscalar processors. Very wide range of architectural features can be addedmodified. The xtensa lx7 release eases systemonchip soc design challenges with numerous architectural enhancements such as broader support for the axi protocol and a new integrated dma controller option, simplifying the integration of xtensa dsp specialized offload engines with generalpurpose application processors and gpus and the associated. Processor and soc vendors can select from various processor options and even create customized instructions in addition to a base isa to tailor the processor for a particular application. Tensilica was a company based in silicon valley in the semiconductor intellectual property core business. At januarys ces consumer electronics show, cadence showed that has picked up the baton and continued the pace of acquired company tensilica by announcing the eleventh generation of the xtensa configurable processor architecture.
Hifi audiovoice dsps with a software library of over 225 codecs from cadence and over 100 software partners. Software and firmware engineers will want to explore the diamond processor software development tools to learn how easy it is to port application code to the diamond core processor family, and to experience the code performance and code size advantages of the tensilica xtensa instruction set architecture. Cadence announces general availability of tensilica xtensa. Built on almost twenty years of tensilica xtensa multiprocessor experience, this solution accelerates all layers, not just convolutional functions, leaving the dsp free to run other applications. This takes a neural network descriptor in caffe or tensorflow and compiles it. Ejsct debugger for xtensa series has two types for single core edition and multicore edition. The stretch s5000 processors leverage the xtensa architecture s flexibility and broaden. Tensilica instruction extension refers to the proprietary language that is used to customize tensilicas xtensa processor core architecture. Tensilica introduces preconfigured cores berkeley design. The xtensa iiibased processor and the cogenerated tool environment can.
Cadence announces general availability of tensilica xtensa lx7 processor architecture, increasing floatingpoint scalability with 2 to 64 flopscycle. The xtensa cores can be customized by licensees, but the diamond cores cannot be customized. Xtensa core has some optional features unavailable for the other core, which is why one of the new diamond cores is based on the xtensa 6 and the others use the xtensa lx. Processor and soc vendors can select from various processor options and even create. To address the increasing computational requirements for embedded vision and ai applications, the. Xtensa instruction set architecture isa reference manual. You will practice working with the xplorer integrated development environment. Achieving unprecedented speeds and low power usage, the vision c5 dsp meets all the requirements of advanced neural network technology. In its basic form, tensilica s xtensa processor core is.
The environment includes an infrastructure to support the engineers most. Ati licenses tensilicas xtensa configurable processor. Atyt has licensed the xtensa r configurable processor. Hardware rtl and software toolsmodels all created at the same time. Tensilica unveils diamond standard 106micro processor.
The xtensa lx7 architecture includes easytouse clickbox options for the tensilica vision p6 dsp for image and convolutional neural network cnn processing, the tensilica fusion g3 dsp for. Tensilica xtensa customizable processors rtos demo freertos. This wellwritten book gives a practical introduction to three basic techniques of modern soc design. Tensilica s entire diamond standard processor family is based on its proven xtensa configurable and extensible processor architecture, used in over 250 chip designs by over 120 licensees. New cadence tensilica vision q7 dsp ip doubles vision and ai. Tensilicas xtensa architecture licensed by stretch inc. Based on the proven xtensa architecture todays complex socs include numerous specialized functions and also deeply embedded control tasks. Tensilica prototyping users guide for the xilinx ml605. Tensilica xtensa lx processor fundamentals cadence. This is a processor plugin for disassemblers which use idapython api, to support the xtensa core found in espressif esp8266. The new xtensa lx6 and xtensa 11 processors enable users to create innovative custom processor instruction sets. Cdns today announced the 11 th generation of the tensilica xtensa processors. The xtensa processor architecture is a configurable, extensible, and synthesizable 32bit risc processor core.
Cadence announces new tensilica vision p6 dsp targeting. The xtensa processor is a configurable and extensible 32bit microprocessor architecture and support environment that enables embedded system designers to build better, more highly integrated products in significantly less time. Every tensilica dsp and processor includes the same base xtensa isa that delivers modern, highperformance risc processor benefits. Shipping at a rate of over 4 billion cores per year, cadences tensilica processor and dsp portfolio is the number 2 volume 32bit processor in the market. Partial original manuscript, editing, and cameraready art. The snapshots below contain the latest stable sources that built successfully for the xtensa architecture, as well as prebuilt binaries for the diamond 232l standard core rev. Xtensa continues to be the only configurable and extensible processor with comprehensive and automatic software, modeling and eda support. Cadence tensilica xtensa instruction set architecture isa. T1050 32bit risc processor running at a clock rate of up to 300mhz coupled with an instruction set. Tensilica provides applicationspecific microprocessor solutions for single chip systems. Diamond standard support supports tensilica licensed xtensalx2 tie and flix instructions are supported 4 hardware break points, 2 instruction, 2 data unlimited software breakpoints. Architectural verification programs avps check each instructions execution within the processors isa, and microarchitecture verification programs mvps check pipeline control and data hazards as well as the processors actual rtl implementation. The xtensa processor architecture is a configurable, extensible, and. Why cadence agreed to acquire tensilica and how it can.
The xtensa v revisions are not a major overhaul, but they do affect the architecture at every level. Latest tensilica processors deliver up to 75% memory power. How tensilica and xtensa came to be what xtensa is, with motivation for the decisions we made. Optek selects cadence tensilica hifi 3 dsp for bluetooth 5. Xtensa is a 32bit microprocessor core designed by tensilica tensilica describes it as a configurable, extensible and synthesizable processor core. The existing tensilica ai toolchain, shown above, is known as xnnc xtensa neural network compiler.
Program the vision p6 dsp and implement basic image. Tensilica is known for its customizable xtensa configurable processor microprocessor core. Shipping at a rate of over 4 billion cores per year, cadences tensilica. You will explore topics in processor architecture and the configurable options of the xtensa lx series processors. You will explore topics in processor architecture and the configurable options of the xtensa. Customers use cadence software, hardware, ip and services to design. Cadence tensilica xtensa instruction set architecture isa reference manual. Architectural verification programs avps check each instructions execution within the processors isa, and micro architecture.
783 515 962 266 786 865 319 1353 1375 987 1042 1522 1031 754 1278 1195 903 1483 701 425 885 648 1387 1151 23 85 642 592 967 391 1291 961 1030 1277 283 549 508 359 110 692 769