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NEC VR4121 64-bit MIPS system-on-chip with bus expansion
[Vendor: NEC Electronics]

The 64-bit VR4121 (µPD30121) microprocessor is a member of NEC’s VR Series devices created for embedded consumer applications. Designed around the MIPS RISC architecture developed by MIPS Technologies, the VR4121 offers excellent power consumption and performance in a highly integrated, low-cost system on a chip.

This microprocessor is the second NEC device to use the ultra-low power consuming VR4120 CPU core based on advanced 0.25-micron technology. The VR4120 CPU has an optimized five-stage pipeline, 16-KB instruction cache, 8-KB data cache, multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit, and memory management unit that enable high performance in a compact, low-cost chip. Integrated peripherals include a power management unit, direct memory access unit, interrupt control unit, timers, real-time clock, 16550-compatible serial interface, IrDA interface, keyboard interface, touch-panel interface, host signal processing unit (software modem), and A/D and D/A converters.

The VR4121 is compatible with MIPS III instruction set architecture (ISA) and MIPS16 application-specific extension (ASE). The MIPS16 ASE compatibility enables the VR4121 to incorporate 16-bit-long instructions with conventional 32-bit-long instructions, resulting in compact code size, a smaller memory requirement, and lower system cost. The VR4121 microprocessor’s high speed, compact size, and low power consumption make it ideal for use in a battery-driven, portable handheld systems.

Features

    VR4120 CPU Core
  • MIPS III ISA-compliant
  • MIPS 16 ASE-compliant for compact code density (40% denser code than MIPS32)
  • Five-stage pipeline running up to 168 MHz
  • Single-cycle 32-bit MAC instruction for digital signal processing operations
    Memory Management Unit
  • 32-bit physical address range of 4 GB with 40-bit virtual address space
  • 32 double-entry TLBs supporting 1~256 KB page sizes
  • Up to 64 MB of SDRAM/EDO/fast-page DRAM and 64 MB of SROM/flash memory/mask ROM
  • Up to 66-MHz operation
    Cache Memory Unit
  • 16-KB direct-mapped instruction cache
  • 8-KB direct-mapped data cache
  • Write-back cache for reducing store operations
    Bus Control Unit
  • 32-bit and 16-bit addressing
  • Dynamic bus sizing; subset of ISA bus
    Power Management Unit
  • Full speed
  • Standby
  • Suspend
  • Hibernate
    Clock Generator Unit
  • Built-in PPL for frequency multiplication
  • External bus frequency of 16/33 MHz
    Serial Interface Unit
  • 16550-compatible
  • RS-232C compliant
  • Up to 115 kbps
  • Separate debugging serial port
    Other Peripherals
  • Real-time clock with four built-in timers
  • Interrupt control unit with internal and external interrupts
  • DMA address unit and DMA control unit with five different channels
  • General-purpose I/O unit with 49 general-purpose I/O pins
  • 96-key keyboard and touch-panel interface
  • 10-bit A/D converter for touch-pannel and audio input
  • Fast IR unit: 0.5 to 4 Mbps IrDA 1.1 standard communication
  • Audio interface unit and 10-bit D/A converter for audio output
  • Host signal processing unit with glueless interface to telecom codec for software modem implementation
    AC/DC Specifications
  • 131 and 168 MHz maximum frequency
  • 2.5V and 3.3V operation
  • 131 MHz: 300-mW typical power consumption
  • 168 MHz: 385-mW typical power consumption
    Package
  • Compact size: 16 x 16 x 1.3 mm
  • 224-pin FPBGA
Companion chip

The VRC4171A is a companion chip designed to be used with NEC’s VR4121 64-bit MIPS RISC microprocessor. With the VR4121 acting as the host CPU, the VRC4171A functions include: glueless interface to color/mono LCDs (up to 640 x 480 resolution); two-slot PC Card (PCMCIA) controller; CompactFlash compatible Flash card interface; general purpose I/O pins.

Together, the VR4121 and VRC4171A provide an excellent performance/cost solution for applications requiring handheld PC equivalent functionality, including LCD display interface.

Notes
  • Linux software support is currently being developed to support the VR4121 + VRC4171A combination in a wide range of embedded applications.
  • If a PCI bus interface is required, the combination of the NEC VR4122 + VRC4173 may be used instead; in that case, an additional component is required for LCD display interfacing.


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