Processor Start-Up P.A. Semi Joins EEMBC Board of Directors

    EL DORADO HILLS, Calif., March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The Embedded
 Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium today announced that P.A. Semi, a
 fabless semiconductor start-up that last month began sampling products from
 its new PWRficient(TM) processor family, has become EEMBC's newest member.
     P.A. Semi joins EEMBC as a member of the consortium's board of
 directors, with full voting rights on all major issues decided by the
 consortium, plus full access to all of the EEMBC(R) benchmarks.
     "P.A. Semi and EEMBC share a keen awareness of the growing importance
 of processor energy consumption and multicore processors," said Markus
 Levy, EEMBC president. "We are thus looking forward to the contribution
 that P.A. Semi will make to the consortium as EEMBC's EnergyBench tool
 continues to gain traction in the marketplace and more and more designers
 recognize the importance of measuring processor energy consumption with
 respect to strictly defined workloads according to standardized criteria."
     P.A. Semi's dual-core PA6T-1682M PWRficient processor is based on IBM's
 Power Architecture(TM). The 1682M features two 2-GHz processors (each with
 its own dual-integer, floating-point, and VMX vector-processing units), 2
 MB of level-two cache, two DDR-2 memory controllers and hardware-assist
 engines for TCP/IP acceleration, security, CRC checksum, and XOR
 computation. The device also integrates a flexible I/O subsystem that
 supports eight PCI Express controllers, two 10-Gigabit Ethernet
 controllers, and four Gigabit Ethernet controllers that share 24
 configurable SERDES lanes.
     "We are pleased to join EEMBC, as it provides a very comprehensive
 suite of standard embedded benchmarks that align very well with P.A. Semi's
 target markets and customers," said Peter Bannon, vice president of
 architecture and verification at P.A. Semi. "We look forward to being able
 to showcase the performance and power of our dual-core PWRficient
 processors using EEMBC's various benchmark suites and EnergyBench tool."
     P.A. Semi was established in 2003 by industry veterans including Dan
 Dobberpuhl, the lead designer of the DEC Alpha and StrongARM
 microprocessors and the first multicore system on chip, the SiByte 1250.
 P.A. Semi's PWRficient processors are based on, and fully
 software-compatible with, the highly regarded Power Architecture(TM)
 instruction set, licensed to P.A. Semi by IBM. The company's first
 dual-core system on chip processor, the PA6T-1682M, is targeted at the
 high-performance embedded computing and control markets.
     About EEMBC
     EEMBC, the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, develops and
 certifies real-world benchmarks and benchmark scores to help designers
 select the right embedded processors for their systems. Every processor
 submitted for EEMBC benchmarking is tested for parameters representing
 different workloads and capabilities in communications, networking,
 consumer, office automation, automotive/industrial, embedded Java, and
 network storage-related applications. With members including leading
 semiconductor, intellectual property, and compiler companies, EEMBC
 establishes benchmark standards and provides certified benchmarking results
 through the EEMBC Technology Center.
     EEMBC's members include Adaptec, Altera, AMD, Analog Devices, ARC
 International, ARM, Artifex Software, Atmel, Broadcom, Code Sourcery,
 esmertec, Freescale Semiconductor, Fujitsu Microelectronics, Green Hills
 Software, IAR Systems AB, IBM, Imagination Technologies, Improv Systems,
 Infineon Technologies, Intel, LSI Logic, Marvell Semiconductor, Matsushita
 Electric Industrial, Mentor Graphics, Microchip Technology, MIPS
 Technologies, National Instruments, NEC Electronics, NETCLEUS Systems,
 Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Oki Electric Industry Co, P.A. Semi, PMC-Sierra,
 Qualcomm, Realtek Semiconductor, Red Hat, Renesas Technology, Sony Computer
 Entertainment, ST Microelectronics, Sun Microsystems, Tensilica, Texas
 Instruments, Toshiba, VIA Technologies, and Wind River Systems.
     EEMBC is a registered trademark of the Embedded Microprocessor
 Benchmark Consortium. All other trademarks appearing herein are the
 property of their respective owners.
 
 

SOURCE EEMBC