Comment Re:What's Your Design Method/Async perf variation (Score 1) 323
Asynchronous speed variation -> The key is to not rely on it. With the i21 the speed variation was less than 5%. Not enough that you would generally notice the performance difference between two units. Certain I/O related portions of the design were implemented synchronously.
tools/languages -> Chuck relied on OKAD which runs under DOS completely. iTv Corp. (who employed Chuck for the i21) had the usual collection of standard ASIC tools and environment available to back-up/analyze the OKAD based design as well as doing other designs.
prototyping in the Xilinx Virtex FPGAs -> Except for a few drawings on paper, I have only seen Chuck use the OKAD layout in the design process. After the i21, iTv Corp. designed a new processor in the same architectural theme as the i21, but completely new in a traditional design flow. It was prototyped using Xilinx Virtex FPGAs and had very good performance compared to a similar RISC processor.
COT -> Don't know what Chuck is doing currently, but in the past everything was built on his own library model. Sadly, all libraries (vendor supplied or not) have to be validated in the fab.
Production -> Unfortunately the Internet appliance market has not grown as big or as fast as we had hoped it would.
Easy integration -> Yes, if you know how to integrate any other hard core in your design. I set-up a process and design flow to do this with the i21, but ended up not using it.
tools/languages -> Chuck relied on OKAD which runs under DOS completely. iTv Corp. (who employed Chuck for the i21) had the usual collection of standard ASIC tools and environment available to back-up/analyze the OKAD based design as well as doing other designs.
prototyping in the Xilinx Virtex FPGAs -> Except for a few drawings on paper, I have only seen Chuck use the OKAD layout in the design process. After the i21, iTv Corp. designed a new processor in the same architectural theme as the i21, but completely new in a traditional design flow. It was prototyped using Xilinx Virtex FPGAs and had very good performance compared to a similar RISC processor.
COT -> Don't know what Chuck is doing currently, but in the past everything was built on his own library model. Sadly, all libraries (vendor supplied or not) have to be validated in the fab.
Production -> Unfortunately the Internet appliance market has not grown as big or as fast as we had hoped it would.
Easy integration -> Yes, if you know how to integrate any other hard core in your design. I set-up a process and design flow to do this with the i21, but ended up not using it.
