The META is a

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...

developed by Metagence Technologies Division from Imagination Technologies. First version of META were developed in 2001 as META-1 multithreaded DSP core aimed for audio, radio and video processing. META HTP core family was announced in 2007 and is based on META-2 architecture. META is designed to support between one and four independent hardware threads, which typically operate concurrently on separate tasks. Despite the shared processing resources, each execution unit maintains a local register state, an execution pipeline, and a program counter (PC) for each thread to accommodate multiple thread contexts. META family consists of Meta HTP applications processors (400–700 MHz on 65L 65G process), META MTP Embedded Processors and Meta LTP Embedded Microcontrollers. It is supported by the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

as of version 3.9. In 2018 March, LWN.net reported that Imagination Technologies redirected its focus away from Meta after its purchase of

MIPS Technologies MIPS Tech LLC, formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. and MIPS Technologies, Inc., is an American Fabless semiconductor company, fabless semiconductor design company that is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of Re ...

in 2012. This has led to a proposal on Linux development mailing lists to remove support for the architecture from the kernel which became effective with the release of Linux 4.17 in June 2018.

References

External links

Product Description
on Imagination Technologies website * Digital signal processors {{RISC-based processor architectures