The PowerPC e600 is a family of

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 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calcula ...

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple– IBM ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

cores developed by

Freescale Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focused their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embe ...

for primary use in high performance

system-on-a-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memor ...

(SoC) designs with speed ranging over 2 GHz, thus making them ideal for high performance routing and telecommunications applications. The e600 is the continuation of the PowerPC 74xx design. The e600 is a

superscalar A superscalar processor is a CPU that implements a form of parallelism called instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. In contrast to a scalar processor, which can execute at most one single instruction per clock cycle, a sup ...

out-of-order

RISC In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set compu ...

core with 32/32 kB L1 data/instruction caches, a seven-stage, three-issue

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

with load/store, system register, powerful

branch prediction In computer architecture, a branch predictor is a digital circuit that tries to guess which way a branch (e.g., an if–then–else structure) will go before this is known definitively. The purpose of the branch predictor is to improve the flow i ...

, integer unit, a

double precision Double-precision floating-point format (sometimes called FP64 or float64) is a floating-point number format, usually occupying 64 bits in computer memory; it represents a wide dynamic range of numeric values by using a floating radix point. F ...

FPU and an enhanced 128-bit AltiVec unit with limited out-of-order execution. The core is designed to work in

multiprocessing Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There ar ...

and

multi core A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate Central processing unit, processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes Instruction set, program instructions. The instructio ...

designs and can take large amounts of L2 caches on die. The e600 core is completely backwards compatible with the PowerPC 74xx cores from which it derives.

CPUs

In 2004 Freescale renamed the PowerPC 74xx core e600 and changed focus from general CPUs to high end embedded SoC devices, and introduced a new naming scheme, MPC86xx. The 7448 was to be the last pure 74xx and it formed the base of the new e600 core.

MPC7448

The 7448 is an evolution of the PowerPC 7447 and is essentially a faster (up to 2 GHz) and more power-efficient version of the 7447B manufactured in 90 nm with 1 MB L2 cache and up to 200 MHz front side bus and it features Freescale's new standard core, the e600.
Freescale's MPC7448 page

MPC864x

The problems associated with the bandwidth-constrained external MPX bus interface found on the 74xx series are relieved with single (MPC8641) or dual (MPC8641D) e600 cores, faster system interface via

RapidIO The RapidIO architecture is a high-performance packet-switched electrical connection technology. RapidIO supports messaging, read/write and cache coherency semantics. Based on industry-standard electrical specifications such as those for Ether ...

, dual x8

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common m ...

and an on-die 667 MHz MPX interconnect between I/O, the cores, and dual 64-bit

DDR2 DDR2 or DDRII may refer to: * DDR2 SDRAM, the computer memory technology * '' Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix'', a 1999 video game * '' Dance Dance Revolution II'', a 2011 video game * DDR2 (gene) Discoidin domain-containing receptor 2, also known as ...

-memory controllers (with ECC). The product also features four on-chip

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use i ...

controllers with

TCP TCP may refer to: Science and technology * Transformer coupled plasma * Tool Center Point, see Robot end effector Computing * Transmission Control Protocol, a fundamental Internet standard * Telephony control protocol, a Bluetooth communication s ...

/ UDP offloading features. The dual core MPC8641D has support for

asymmetric multiprocessing An asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP or ASMP) system is a multiprocessor computer system where not all of the multiple interconnected central processing units (CPUs) are treated equally. For example, a system might allow (either at the hardware or ope ...

, which enables two

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s to run on the same device simultaneously, sharing resources but largely unaware of each other. The MPC8641 (single core) and MPC8641D (dual core) are manufactured on a 90 nm SOI based process. 8641 draws less than 16W at 1.33 GHz and 8641D less than 25W at 1.5 GHz.
Freescale's MPC8641D page
Introduced in summer of 2008, the MPC8640 and MPC8640D are low power, low cost versions of the MPC8641 parts. Clocked at 1-1.25 GHz they draw 14-21W power while being identical to their older brethren in other respects.
Freescale's MPC8640D page

MPC8610

Introduced in 2007 the MPC8610 is a host processor with integrated

graphics processor A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

supporting 24-bit screens sizes up to 1280x1024 pixels. It is a single core CPU with 256 kB on die L2 cache. Manufactured on a 90 nm process, it reaches speeds from 667 to 1333 MHz.
Press release regarding MPC8610

Device list

''This list is a complete list of known core e600 based designs (excluding older 74xx designs). The pictures are illustrations and not to scale.''

External links

Freescale's e600 SoC Platform Products
{{Motorola processors E600 E600