[Arm-netbook] FSF-Endorseable Processor

[luke.leighton]

On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 11:45 PM, Dr. David Alan Gilbert <dave at treblig.org>wrote:

> * luke.leighton (luke.leighton at gmail.com) wrote:
> > ok - to bring things more towards the direction that this long-term
> > project is going, i've been talking to processor companies, and found
> > the best one yet.  i'm putting together an article which introduces
> > the plan, and i'd greatly appreciate peoples'  input before going
> > ahead.
> >
> > http://lkcl.net/articles/fsf_endorseable_processor.html
>
> I was going to say that the date seems ludicrously aggressive, but then
> I ntocied the scroll bar and kept reading.
>
> So it would seem to come down to how much work is actually needed;
> ok so you need the process shrink etc - that, assuming it's mostly
> synthesized should be the relatively easy bit.
>
>
yes.  process shrink and a modest increase in clock rate from 600mhz (65nm)
to 800mhz (40nm).


> But what else is needed?
>    * Do they have working USB-3/SATA-2 modules that meet the requirements?
>

 those hard macros will be licensed.  they'll have been proven in other
products, and i've checked in advance: they're entirely FSF-Endorseable.
no proprietary stuff needed.


>    * What about the GPU - is there a working GPU ?
>
>
the processor *is* the GPU, that's what's beautiful about it.  to put that
another way: the CPU has been extended with instructions that massively
speed up the kinds of operations that a GPU does.

performance at 600mhz is comparable to many of the embedded GPUs running at
300mhz, so power consumption will, clearly, be a bit higher, but that's ok:
it's not running at 1ghz or 1.5ghz


> If they need to develop anything new then the timescale will be much
> higher.
>

there are absolutely no plans to develop anything new.  the only minor
change needed would be to the 2nd level cache if doing an 8-core SMP chip.

l.
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