CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At Interop 2009, RMI Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance processors for communication and media rich applications, announced the industry’s highest performing Multi-core Processor family driving unmatched system and performance scalability. The superscalar XLP™ Processor utilizes a MIPS64® compatible superscalar, simultaneously multi-threaded processor core with out-of-order processing capabilities. The newly designed core operates at greater than 2.0 GHz and provides embedded system designers their first opportunity to employ a SoC with an integrated best-in-class processor core architecture, optimized for both data plane and control plane processing. RMI’s latest offering delivers the most advanced and highly integrated multi-core processor solution in the industry. The XLP Processor family is developed on a 40nm process technology.

“The XLP Processor is a significant milestone for RMI on the way to becoming the leading communication processor company in the industry. The overwhelming support of our partners in this endeavor is recognition of our leadership architecture,” said Behrooz Abdi, president and chief executive officer, RMI. “The combination of our high performance architecture and advanced 40nm technology will put us significantly ahead of the competition and allow our customers to further differentiate themselves in their market segments.”

EC4400™ Processor Core

The EC4400 Processor Core contained in the XLP Processor is architected to provide the highest performance for both data plane and control plane performance. Each EC4400 Core maintains the multi-threading capability that is field proven to provide the highest possible performance for throughput oriented data plane processing. In order to demonstrate similar leadership in single context control plane processing, RMI designed the EC4400 Core as a superscalar engine with out-of-order execution capabilities. This combination of quad-issue and simultaneous 4-way multi-threading within each core enables new classes of systems with non-compromised combined data plane and control plane performance with a single chip solution.

Each of the four hardware threads (VirtuCores™) embedded in the EC4400 Core appears to software as a completely separate processing element, enabling extremely flexible software architectures that simultaneously simplify the software development while increasing the overall system performance. RMI’s innovative hardware multi-threading capabilities are proven to deliver unparalleled performance in data plane applications that are inherently sensitive to memory latencies. The EC4400 Core is MIPS64® Release-II ISA-compliant and contains an IEEE754 and MIPS-compliant floating point unit per core. Through the combination of architectural improvement and frequency enhancement, the EC4400 offers a 3x performance per watt improvement over RMI’s industry leading current generation product offering and was designed based on inputs from leading systems providers.

“We are pleased with the results we have obtained through our work with RMI and look forward to further collaboration,” said Brian Nadeau, director EqualLogic storage engineering. “RMI’s multi-core processors, including the new XLP Processor, bring exceptional performance and scalability to our EqualLogic storage systems.”

The XLP832 Processor

The RMI XLP832 Processor is a highly-scalable Super System-on-Chip (SuperSoC™) device incorporating key functions of a high-end communication system, including wired and wireless security, networking, storage, data center acceleration, load balancing, as well as a host of other acceleration engines enabling application in a large variety of market segments. The XLP Processor family is a third-generation architectural enhancement to RMI's industry leading Multi-core XLR Processor® family. The XLP832 is fabricated using 40-nm technology and offers processor core frequencies from 500 MHz to greater than 2.0 GHz, providing a 3x performance/watt improvement over its XLR® predecessor. The XLP832 is software backward-compatible with the XLR and XLS® Processor families. The XLP832 Processor contains a wide array of networking interfaces (Interlaken, XAUI, SGMII) and system interfaces (including PCI Express 2.0, an LA-1 Interlaken for TCAM, and two USB 2.0 host/client ports).

XLP Processor Family Features

• Up to Eight EC4400 Processor cores operating at 500 MHz up to greater than 2.0 GHz
• High-Performance Memory Subsystem
• Tri-Level Processor Cache Architecture with 12Mbytes of on-chip cache
• Interchip Interface providing cache coherent scalability for up to 4 XLP devices
• RMI’s patented Enhanced Fast Messaging Network™ (FMN v2.0)
• Autonomous Acceleration Engines® that operate independently from CPUs completely offloading operation
  • 40 Gbps bandwidth Autonomous Security Acceleration Engine® supporting networking, wireless and storage encryption acceleration
  • 10 Gbps compression
  • C-Programmable Autonomous Network Acceleration Engine® for flexible packet parsing
  • Packet Ordering Engine (POE)
  • RAID-5 XOR acceleration, RAID-6 P + Q Galois computations
  • De-duplication acceleration
  • TCP segmentation offloading

The XLP Processor is targeted at expanding the overall opportunity for RMI’s Multi-core Multi-threaded product offerings and enables a broad set of application specific features for customer use in security appliances, L4-L7 switching, storage networking, 3G/4G wireless, and small business networks, as well as several new market opportunities for RMI. Early development work with the world’s leading storage, networking, telecom, wireless and enterprise customers has been in place for over 2 years. RMI will sample multiple members of the XLP Processor family in the fourth quarter of this year.

Unmatched Scalability

The XLP832 scales to support quad-chip configurations with greater than 100Gbps throughput capabilities. The XLP Processor family will also include single core offerings that provide new performance per watt leadership solutions in lower-end applications such as broadband access gateways, wireless LAN access points, secure wireless routers, entry level NAS and NVR devices and Office Automation. RMI will also offer various XLP family members employing 2 to 6 EC4400 Cores to provide optimal solutions for mid-range applications such as wireless base stations, Enterprise security appliances, cloud computing, data center offload, etc. At the higher end, RMI’s 8 core XLP832 offering provides a single chip 40Gbps class solution with quad chip configurations scaling to support application solutions requiring more than 100 Gbps of throughput. This product offering will establish RMI as the only company on the planet capable of providing optimized system solutions that scale over three orders of magnitude; from less than 100Mbps to greater than 100Gbps.

About RMI

RMI Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company providing High-Performance Super System-on-a-Chip (SuperSoC™) Processor solutions for the Infrastructure, Enterprise, and Consumer Media markets. Applications include Wireless, Networking Security, Thin Clients, and Connected Multi-Media. RMI offers a broad platform of advanced MIPS-compatible processor solutions with both 32/64-bit architectures supporting frequencies from 300MHz to greater than 2.4 GHz. RMI is headquartered in Cupertino, CA with branch and subsidiary operations in Texas, France, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. More information about RMI can be found on the company's website at www.RMICorp.com.

© Copyright 2009 RMI Corporation. All rights reserved. RMI, the RMI logo, XLP, EC4400, VirtuCore, SuperSoC, XLR Processor, XLR, XLS, Fast Messaging Network, Autonomous Acceleration Engine, Autonomous Security Acceleration Engine, Autonomous Network Acceleration Engine, and the other trademarks named on the RMI website are trademarks of RMI Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.