CPU of the Day: Xionics XipChip1
Xionics XipChip1
It was the late 90s and high integration was the name of the game. Xionics (based in Burlington, Mass) and IBM set out to create an intelligent peripheral controller meant to replace logic/ASICs in printers, copiers, and other imaging products with something more useful. Xionics was originally founded in 1978 in the U.K. and in the 1980s began making document imaging products.
The XipChip1 is what they came up with. It is a PowerPC 401 core, running at 40MHz with 2KB I Cache + 1KB D Cache made on a 0.36u 4-Layer CMOS process at IBMs plant in Bromont Canada. They included a JPEG engine, DMA controller, Raster Graphics Engine, and a 240MHz RAMBUS controller (hey it was the 90s, RAMBUS was all the rage). Xionics sold their technology to a number of printer companies (Ricoh, Panasonic, Xerox, HP and many others) and their software was widely adopted. By 1999 Xionics was bought out by Oak Technology which was acquired by Zoran in 2003.
