Atmel's RISC-Based Programmable System-on-Chip

Atmel Corp. is now plugging the AT94K05 micro-FPSLIC, which it says is the world's lowest cost, RISC-based programmable system-on-a-chip (SoC). With volume unit pricing under $5, Atmel's newest Field Programmable System Level IC offers 20+ MIPS performance in a programmable SoC, with ASIC-level pricing and low power consumption. Micro-FPSLIC consumes only 50 uA in standby mode and 2 to 3 mA/MHz during operation. The micro-FPSLIC programmable SoC integrates an 8-bit AVR RISC processor, peripherals that include UARTS, timer/counters, oscillators, I/O ports, 8x8 multiplier and a two-wire serial interface plus 5,000 gates of AT40K FPGA, and 20 kBytes of program and dual port data SRAM. The heart of micro-FPSLIC is the 20+ MIPS AVR RISC processor with hardware multiplier. Similar to the ARM Thumb, the AVR is a pipelined RISC processor. The micro-FPSLIC's 129 instructions are optimized so that nearly all the processor's functions can be executed in a single clock cycle, resulting in compact code size, higher system performance, and lower power consumption. It also has a fixed 16-bit instruction, 8-bit data, and the capability to perform 32-bit math. The micro-FPSLIC (AT94K05AL) is available now in 84 PLCC, 100 VQFP (Very thin Quad Flat Pack), 144 TQFP (Thin QFP) and 208 PQFP package. Micro-FPSLIC prices start at $7 now and will be $4.95 in quantities of 100,000 in 2002. Prices for Atmel's System Design programmable SoC tool suite start at $495.