| NEC VR4122 64-bit MIPS system-on-chip with PCI expansion |
[Vendor: NEC Electronics]
The 64-bit VR4122 (µPD30122) microprocessor, a member of NEC’s VR Series microprocessors, is designed especially for high-performance handheld portable computing devices and PCI-based systems such as network terminals, auto PCs, webphotos, and other embedded systems. It uses the MIPS RISC architecture developed by MIPS Technologies and offers excellent power consumption and performance in a highly integrated, low-cost system-on-a-chip (SOC).
The microprocessor uses the ultra-low power consuming VR4120 CPU core, based on advanced 0.18-micron technology. The VR4120 CPU has an optimized five-stage pipeline, 32-KB instruction cache, 16-KB data cache, multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) unit, and memory management unit (MMU) that enable high performance in a compact, low-cost chip. The integrated peripherals include a power management unit (PMU), direct memory address (DMA) unit, interrupt control unit, timers, real-time clock, 16550-compatible serial interface, IrDA interface, and PCI bus controller.
The VR4122 microprocessor is compliant with the MIPS I, II, III instruction set architectures (ISAs) and MIPS16 application-specific extension (ASE). For MIPS16 ASE compliance, the VR4122 incorporates 16-bit instructions with conventional 32-bit instructions to allow compact code size, lower memory, and lower system cost.
The VR4122 microprocessor provides an easy choice for VR4121 customers in terms of upgrade, since the VR4122 and VR4121 are software compatible. The VR4122 microprocessor’s high speed, compact size, and low power consumption make it ideal for use in battery-driven, portable handheld systems.
Features
VR4120 CPU Core- MIPS I, II, III ISA-compliant
- MIPS16 ASE-compliant for compact code density (40% denser code than MIPS32)
- Five-stage pipeline running up to 180 MHz
- Single-cycle 32-bit MAC instruction for DSP operations
Memory Management Unit- 32-bit physical addressing range of 4 GB with 40-bit virtual address space
- 32 double-entry TLBs supporting 1~256 KB page size
- Up 128-MB SDRAM/EDO/fast-page DRAM and 128-MB SROM/flash memory/mask ROM
Cache Memory Unit- 32-KB direct-mapped instruction cache
- 16-KB direct-mapped data cache
Bus Control Unit- 32-bit and 16-bit addressing mode
- Dynamic bus sizing to support subset of ISA bus
- PCI bus support
Serial Interface Unit- 16550-compatible
- RS-232C Compliant
- 1.5-Mbps data transfers
- Separate serial debugging port
PCI Bus Interface Unit- Supports 32-bit 33 MHz PCI bus
Other- Power management unit with four power-saving modes: full speed, standby, suspend, and hibernate
- Clock generator unit with built-in PLL for frequency multiplication
- Real-time clock with four built-in timers
- Interrupt control unit that supports both internal and external interrupts
- DMA address unit and DMA control unit that controls three different types of DMA
- General-purpose I/O unit that controls 31 general-purpose I/O pins
- Fast infrared unit: 0.5 to 4 Mbps IrDA 1.1 standard communication
AC/DC Specifications- 180 MHz maximum frequency
- 1.8 V (CPU Core) and 3.3 V (I/O) operation
- 270 mW at 180 MHz typical power consumption (target)
Package- 224-pin FPBGA package (16 x 16 x 1.3 mm)
- 0.18-micron CMOS Process Technology
VRC4173 Companion Chip
The VRC4173 is a companion chip designed to be used with NEC’s VR4122 64-bit MIPS RISC microprocessor. With the VR4122 acting as the host CPU, the VRC4173 functions include PCI bus interface, USB host controller (OHCI), two-slot PC Card (PCMCIA) controller, AC97 compatible audio CODEC interface, keyboard controller, D-to-A and A-to-D controllers for audio I/O and touch panel interface, 21 general purpose I/O pins, and built-in oscillator.
Together, the VR4122 and VRC4173 provide an excellent performance/cost solution for applications requiring handheld PC equivalent functionality. LCD controller functionality, not included in the VRC4173, can be added by using a device such as the MediaQ MQ-200 LCD controller (used on the NEC evaluation board). Information on the MQ-200 is available at www.mediaq.com.
Notes- Linux software support is currently being developed to support the VR4122 + VRC4173 combination in a wide range of embedded applications.
- As mentioned above, the combination of VR4122 + VRC4173 does not include LCD controller functionality. Alternatively, the NEC VR4121 + VRC4171A companion I/O expansion chip may be used if a two-chip solution which includes LCD controller interface (but without the PCI expansion bus of the VR4122) is required.
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