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EMBEDDED: AMD OUTLINES FIRST SUPERSCALAR AM29000
(October 21st 1994) Advanced Micro Devices used the recent
Microprocessor Forum to sketch out the first superscalar
implementation of its 29k family of embedded RISC processors. The new
processor is a four-issue chip, optimised for the high-end of the
embedded market. The processor - unnamed, and with no release dates -
has two integer units, an integer multiply unit, a load/store unit, a
branch unit and a funnel shifter (and no, we don't know what one of
those is). The processor has 8kb data and instruction caches and is
pin-compatible with the existing Am29030/35 and Am29040.
The processor clock runs at 2x, 3x or 4x the system frequency, to a
maximum of 100MHz internal, 33MHz external. Performance data is thin
on the ground, but a performance graph depicts the new 75/25MHz part
handling Page Description Language processing at around nine times
the speed of a standard, 16MHz 29000. No news on when the thing will
be available.