At the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose last week, National Semiconductor was showing off its new Geode family of x86-based processors that the company says were designed specifically for information appliances. National defines "information appliances" as thin clients, digital set-top boxes, residential gateways, and personal Internet access devices. Power consumption is less than 1 watt in typical applications and 3 watts for streaming media-intensive applications. National's Geode GX2 family is designed on the 0.15-micron process technology and includes an x86 CPU core with 3DNow! instructions, 16K Instruction and 16K Data caches, and architectural enhancements for streaming multimedia. The chips also integrate a SDRAM/DDR-SDRAM memory controller, 32-bit 2D graphics controller, PCI-66 interface, 1600x1200x24 bit display with video scaling, CRT digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and a unified memory architecture (UMA) DSTN/TFT controller. National says the chips' GeodeLink architecture is a single on-chip interconnect that facilitates the integration of modules and allows the use of UMA. It provides 6 GB/s on-chip bandwidth, up to 2 GB/s memory bandwidth, diagnostics, and active hardware power management. GeodeLink also uses a modular reusable design and lets legacy PCI drivers developed for discrete components function when the IP is integrated onto a single chip. The Geode GX2 reference platform includes CRT/TFT output, DDR-SDRAM and SDRAM support, universal serial bus (USB) support, 4 PCI slots, and additional boards that include flash support and a super I/O and touch screen controller. It comes with firmware and drivers to support Windows XP/XP Embedded/CE; Lineo; Tuxia; RedHat; Century Software and other versions of Linux. Packaged in a 368-pin enhanced ball grid array (EBGA), the Geode GX2 processor, together with a companion chip, is priced below US $50 each in high volume. Production is expected in the first half of 2002.