San Jose, CA; Microprocessor Forum — (press release excerpt) — National Semiconductor today unveiled a new Geode family of x86-based, highly integrated processors designed exclusively for information appliances. The new Geode GX2 family is targeted to information appliances such as thin clients, digital set-top boxes, residential gateways, and personal Internet access devices. The new Geode family is designed for full-featured multimedia across broadband Internet connections at low power consumption levels. Power consumption is less than 1 watt in typical applications and merely 3 watts for streaming media-intensive applications.

National's Geode GX2 family is designed on the 0.15-micron process technology and includes the following features: 200-400 MHz x86 CPU core with 3DNow! instructions, 16K Instruction and 16K Data caches, and architectural enhancements for optimal streaming multimedia. Additionally, the GX2 family integrates a double-data-rate SDRAM memory controller, 32-bit 2D graphics controller, PCI-66 interface, high resolution 1600x1200x24 bit display with video scaling, CRT digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and a unified memory architecture (UMA) DSTN/TFT controller. A separate companion chip integrates a real-time clock, boot pre-loader, two USB ports, ATA 66 disk interface, LPC bus, AC '97 DMA audio, 16 GPIO (muxed), 1 UART, Infrared, ACCESS.bus (similar to I2C), and Flash memory support (LPC based and NAND/NOR).

National also developed a reference design platform based on the Geode GX2 family of processors targeting Internet access devices. The Geode GX2 reference platform includes CRT/TFT output, DDR-SDRAM and SDRAM support, universal serial bus (USB) support, 4 PCI slots for easy development and additional boards for increased functionality: flash support, super I/O, and touch screen controller. It also comes with firmware and drivers to support several operating systems. Linux support is included for Lineo, Tuxia, Red Hat, Century Software, and others.

Packaged in a 368-pin enhanced ball grid array (EBGA), National Semiconductor's Geode GX2 processor, together with a companion chip, is priced below $50 each in high volume. Production is expected in the first half of 2002.

 
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