Christine, RE: "I'm someone who actually understands what these chips do"
Hop on over to the PTSC thread....
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Patriot Scientific's PSC1008 Java Processor
: Patriot Scientific unveils the first Java processor
_________________________________________________________
Publication: Computergram International
Issue Date: 09-23-97
Issue Number: 3252
ROCKWELL IMPLEMENTS SUN'S PICOJAVA JAVA PROCESSOR ON
SILICON
Rockwell International Inc's avionics and communications unit,
Rockwell Collins Inc has become the latest player to enter the Java processor market, by using Sun Microsystems Inc's picoJava processor specification. The company licensed the picoJava Java chip
specification from Sun in March, completed the porting work and now has Java on silicon in the form of a 32-bit core called JEM1, which is six millimeters square in 0.5 micron CMOS. Rockwell also says it has a cross-licensing agreement with Sun and gave Sun some
unspecified proprietary technology it needed for its chips in other
areas, in exchange for picoJava and the exclusive rights to Java
within the avionics industry. Sun Microeletronics (SME) says it has
right to the JEM1 but would not comment on whethrer it would be
taking the chip back for its own use. But SME did say the agreement
with Rockwell was different from normal liecnsing deal, because in
addition to the license fees and royalties, Sun has a technology
transfer option as well. The chip came out of Rockwell's Advanced
Architecture Microprocessor (AAMP) series, of which there have been
at least six versions over the last 12 or so years. The chip is
designed using a stack, rather than register-based architecture, as
Rockwell engineers discovered about a year ago that stack-architect
chips are ideally suited to the need of software virtual machines -
far more so they say than register architectures. Rockwell's plans
for the JEM1 are still fluid at the moment, although Gene Schwarting,
director of strategic management for Collins General aviation
division says the company is leaning in favor of reducing JEM1's size
and getting another version out before bringing anything to market,
either to sell or to license. But he says the level of outside
interest may determine the company's action. He also says that the
plans dont stop at Java - any virtual machine could be adopted.
Although Rockwell claims a first, tiny outfit Patriot Scientific Corp
says it will beat all-comers as it will be showing its processor, the
PSC1000 on Monday at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose. It
says it will prove how fast it runs and should announce some
licensees. Rockwell is approaching Java from a different end of the
computing spectrum to the likes of Sun. Rockwell's aim, says
Schwarting, was not to get a chip that was necessarily super-fact -
the JEM1 only clocks at about 60MHz right now but could be stretch to
100MHz in the current form - but to make one that generated very
little heat, because "heat is the enemy of reliability," he
says. That's because Rockwell is concentrating, for the moment at
least on the microcontroller core in telecommunication and navigation
systems, rather than single processor devices such as network
computers, although Schwarting would not rule out that possibility
for the future.
____________
- Patriot will be first out the door.
- Patriot to demo next Monday at Embedded systems conference
- Patriot to announce licenses at the conference
- PSC1000 100Mhz, Rockwell 60 Mhz (probably more expensive)
- PSC1000 targeted to NC which Rockwell will not enter right now (if ever)
____________
Emerging markets drive performance
techweb.com
Architecture is key to execution in Java
techweb.com
Slew of Java chips on the way
infoworld.com
First Java-Specific Chip Takes Wing
techweb.com
Sun Licenses JavaOSTM to Patriot Scientific
ptsc.com
-Urlman |
