Hsinchu,
The D23 and N225 cores have been meticulously engineered with compactness, performance-efficiency, low-power consumption, flexibility, and security as top priorities. These cores empower IoT and embedded chip and device manufacturers to meet the burgeoning demands of a rapidly evolving market while minimizing power usage and ensuring robust security.
Andes announced the popular N22, a 2-stage pipeline AndesCore implementing RV32I/
Common Key Features of AndesCore D23 and N225:
Latest RISC-V Extensions Support: The N225 implements the RV32 IMACBZce non-privileged extensions as well as Machine/User modes and Enhanced Physical Memory Protection (ePMP). The D23 additionally supports the FDKP extensions (
Compact Size: Both cores feature a highly compact design with a 3-stage pipeline, primarily supporting single instruction issue with some dual-issue capability. This makes them exceptionally well-suited for space- and memory-constrained IoT and embedded applications, including wearables, sensors, and smart home devices.
High Performance: Both cores achieve industry-leading performance in their class, boasting outstanding benchmark scores such as 4.55 (D23) and 4.4 (N225) Coremark/MHz, and 2.08 (D23) and 1.92 (N225) DMIPS/MHz, respectively. They are capable of operating at high frequencies across various technology nodes such as near 800 MHz at 28nm, providing the necessary computing power for edge IoT devices with ever-increasing performance and feature demands.
Power Management: Both cores support advanced power management technologies such as PowerBrake and Wait-For-Interrupt (WFI) and Wait-For-Event (WFE), ensuring prolonged battery life for many types of untethered IoT devices.
Small Code Size: The N22 already offers industry-leading code size with Andes CoDense™ technology. With the addition of the new RISC-V Zce code size reduction extension, the D23 and N225 further reduce 4.4% code size for the Embench-IoT benchmark, compared to the N22. This provides additional memory cost-saving for Andes customers.
Flexibility: Both cores offer extensive configurability, including optimized multipliers for performance or area, optional static or dynamic branch prediction, various combinations of privilege modes, instruction and data Local Memories with sizes from 1 KB to 512 MB, and 2-wire or 4-wire JTAG debug interface. Designers can tailor these features to address their specific application requirements.
Ease of SoC Integration: To simplify integration into System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, both cores support either Core-Local Interrupt Controller (CLIC) for the single-CPU SoC or Platform-level Interrupt Controller (PLIC) for multiple-CPU SoC, rich options for AMBA interfaces, private machine timers or platform machine timers, and instruction trace interfaces.
In addition to the above-mentioned shared features and latest RISC-V extensions, the D23 core boasts additional capabilities, including built-in instruction and data caches, and ECC soft error protection for all cache and local memories. It can also seamlessly integrate with the powerful ACE™ (Andes Custom Extension) to support custom instructions for Domain-Specific Acceleration (DSA) and has a roadmap to include a functional safety derivative. These expanded capabilities open up opportunities for the D23 to serve a wider range of segments in automotive and industrial control applications.
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The D23/N225 have been licensed out and several companies are actively evaluating them. Their overall features will be developed and delivered in two phases. For more information about these cores, please visit the
About
Eighteen years in business and a Founding Premier member of
Hsiao-Ling Lin Marcom Manager,Andes Technology Corp. hllin@andestech.com
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