AppliedMicro Unveils New Energy-efficient Processor Family

Published: 11-May-2010

Applied Micro Circuits, a provider of energy saving computing and communications systems, has introduced APM801xx, a family of energy-efficient embedded processors.

APM801xx product family supports performance and a selection of peripherals for range of consumer devices from gateways, control panels and energy meters to network attached storage systems, consumer Wi-Fi access points, residential gateways, and connected displays.

Each of the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) devices in the APM801xx family is designed to deliver processing performance for consumer embedded systems that require less than 1W of operating power and low bill-of-material cost.

End-users and manufacturers for newly enabled Over-the-Top (OTT) features such as Hulu, YouTube, or Netflix are sensitive to ease-of-use issues. AppliedMicro's APM801xx family is designed to deliver the performance that enables these new applications. In connected displays the APM801xx family serves as network co-processor to a video processing subsystem for internet downloads.

The AppliedMicro APM801xx family supports CPU frequencies up to 800Mhz. High-speed interchip and networking connectivity is key to the SoC's delivery of performance at low power dissipation and each family member is enabled with a number of high-speed interfaces such as PCIe, SATA, GigE, SDIO, TDM and USB 2.0, according to the company.

The high integration and small footprint of the device helps drives minimal bill-of-material costs for embedded platforms, the company said. Estimated performance is 1,216 Dhrystone MIPS and typical power consumption is equivalent 1W in active mode and 0.3W in standby mode.

The AppliedMicro APM801xx family will come in three variants: 801xx-400, the 801xx-600, and 801xx-800 and will be available in two different packages in 10x10-mm BGA and 14x14-mm BGA.

Gopi Sirineni, vice resident of consumer and SMB business unit at AppliedMicro, said: "We're starting to see the drive toward energy-efficient electronic systems come in the form of government mandates and corporate initiatives but the need for high-performance in a range of consumer applications continues to increase as volumes of digital content being created and accessed by a growing array of convergence devices continues to rise.

''AppliedMicro's APM801xx processor family provides best-in-class energy consumption without sacrificing performance for these applications. The power envelope of the APM801xx processor is second-to-none in its class and it allows embedded developers to start their migration toward full-featured, low-cost systems."

Samples of the processor are expected in June 2010 and full production quantities are scheduled for the third quarter. Pricing is under $10 for 10,000-unit quantities.

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