AppliedMicro’s PacketPro multi-core APM8639x SoC family supports subsystem isolation with asymmetric multiprocessing

SUNNYVALE, USA: Applied Micro Circuits Corp. announced the availability of “Diamondback” APM86392 and APM86391, the newest members of its PacketPro family of multi-core embedded processing devices.

Through an innovative asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) capability, these devices enable two or more independent subsystems to operate concurrently with effective isolation on a single chip. This feature improves application performance and offers higher reliability. It is also designed to provide an easier migration to multicore designs with greater flexibility for a wide range of embedded applications in networking, storage, printing, imaging, and multimedia access systems.

Traditional multi-core processors force software engineers to dedicate one of the cores as a master to control the operations of the other slave cores. By harnessing innovative features of the PacketPro family enabled by AppliedMicro’s Scalable Lightweight Intelligent Management processor (SLIMpro) subsystem, developers can implement AMP on APM8639x processors without dedicating one of the cores as a master.

This enables completely separate and isolated partitions on a single chip, each with independent operating systems, applications, software, processing bandwidth, I/O and cache. Each subsystem is decoupled from other subsystems during software updates, crashes, rebooting, peak performance demands or other events that can interrupt continuous operations.

“In instances of a system fail requiring complete reboot, the PacketPro allows the decoupling of cores without interruption or impact of other subsystems running on the same embedded SoC device,” said Jim Johnston, senior Director of Marketing at AppliedMicro. “Before this, both subsystems would have to be taken down to reboot one operating system due to dependencies from shared cache memory and other resources. AppliedMicro’s approach provides each processor with separate and virtualized access to processor resources that one subsystem can continue operation even if any of the other ones becomes inoperative.”

Additionally, AppliedMicro’s AMP approach is designed to aid developers who are migrating from single-core to multi-core designs by allowing them to consolidate several applications onto one SoC without the re-engineering that typically accompanies porting of software to a multi-core environment, thereby reducing overall development time and bill-of-material costs while accelerating time to market. The PacketPro family of devices also utilizes the SLIMpro subsystem to manage multiple power islands on the SoC to meet low-power, energy efficiency requirements.

“Working hand-in-hand with our customers gave AppliedMicro great insight on the needs of next-generation platforms,” said Vinay Ravuri, VP and GM, Processor Business Unit. “PacketPro asymmetric multiprocessing is one of the capabilities developers need because they must effectively manage multiple operating systems and applications on a single chip. The non-blocking architecture of PacketPro is arbitrated by superior queue management and traffic management so that each individual application never suffers from a lack of processing resources, ensuring the highest reliability and uninterrupted performance.”

AppliedMicro’s Diamondback APM86391 single core devices and APM86292 dual-core processors feature PowerPC 465 processing cores operating at up to 1.0GHz with floating point units, 32 KB I- and 32KB D-cache, 256 KB L2 cache per processor, 32-bit DDR at 1066 Mbps DDR3 memory controller with optional ECC. High-speed interfaces consist of GE ports with in-line classification, security and TCP/IP offload, three single lane PCI-e Gen 2, two USB 2.0 host with integrated PHYs, one USB 2.0 OTG with integrated PHY, and one SATA 2.0 ports.

The Serengeti evaluation platform is available now running up to 1.0GHz and exposes all interfaces available on the SoC. The PacketPro family is supported by an ecosystem of third-party suppliers such as WindRiver, VxWorks, Free BSD, Enea, NetBSD and others.