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NEC VR4181 system-on-chip with built-in LCD controller
[Vendor: NEC Electronics]

The 64-bit VR4181 (µPD30181) is a highly integrated system-on-chip device based on a MIPS RISC CPU core. It was originally designed for Windows CE based hand-held PC applications and contains all of the functions typically required in such a device. Consequently, NEC has included the following integrated peripherals within the Vr4181 system-on-chip:
  • LCD controller
  • CompactFlash interface
  • Power management unit
  • DMA, interrupt control, timers, real-time clock
  • 16550-compatible serial interface
  • IrDA 1.0 interface
  • Keyboard interface
  • Touch-panel interface
  • USB functional interface
  • A/D and D/A converters for audio I/O
The VR4181 microprocessor is the second NEC device to use the ultra-low power 66-MHz VR4110 CPU core based on advanced 0.25-micron technology. The VR4110 CPU has an optimized five-stage pipeline, 4-KB instruction cache, 4-KB data cache, multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) unit, and memory management unit that enable high performance in a compact, low-cost chip.

The VR4181 microprocessor complies with the MIPS I, II, and III instruction set architectures (ISAs) and MIPS16 application-specific extension (ASE). The MIPS16 ASE compliance enables the VR4181 to incorporate 16-bit-long instruction format with conventional 32-bit-long instruction support, which results in compact code size, smaller memory foot print, and lower system cost. The VR4181 is an excellent choice for palm-size PC designers because its high performance, compact size, and low power consumption make it ideal for use in battery-driven, portable handheld systems.

Features

   VR4110 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 66 MHz
  • Single-cycle MAC instruction for digital signal processing operations
   Memory Management Unit

   4 KB Cache Memory Unit

   Bus Control Unit
  • Ultra-power-saving Modular Bus Architecture (MBA)
  • 32-bit and 16-bit addressing modes
  • Dynamic bus sizing supports subset of ISA bus
   Power Management Unit with four modes
  • Full speed
  • Standby
  • Suspend
  • Hibernate
   Clock Generator Unit
  • Built-in PPL for frequency multiplication
  • External bus frequency of 16 and 33 MHz
   Serial Interface Unit
  • One 16550-compatible channel
  • RS-232C compliant
  • Up to 115 kbps
   LCD controller

   CompactFlash interface

   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 four different channels
  • General-purpose I/O unit
  • 64-key keyboard interface
  • 12-bit A/D converter for touch-pannel interface and audio input
  • Infrared unit: IrDA 1.0 standard communication
  • Audio interface unit and 10-bit D/A converter for audio output and microphone input sampling
  • USB function interface
   AC/DC Specifications
  • 66 MHz maximum frequency
  • 2.5 and 3.3 Volt operation
  • < 250 mW typical power consumption
   Package
  • Compact size: 16 x 16 x 1.3 mm
  • 160-pin LQFP
Reference Design and Linux Support

Source code to a Linux port for the NEC "Osprey" reference board for the Vr4181 is available for download, at linux-vr.org. The Vr4181 Reference Design Board was originally designed as a Windows CE PDA development platform. It provides the following onboard functions: 16Mbytes of SDRAM, a 240 x 320 pixel ALPS TFT Color LCD screen with backlight, touch panel interface, CompactFlash socket, four application function buttons, serial port, microphone audio input, and audio output to a speaker.

The handheld portion is encased in a clear plastic shell. With the case off and the Flash module removed, the handheld connects to a Debug Reference Board that contains four 7-segment LEDs, a parallel client port for downloading software, a debug serial port, a debug EPROM, a flash module interface connector, a National DP83905 Ethernet interface, several HP debug connectors for a logic analyzer.

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