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Intel platforms also had an ARC processor (they approximately cater the same markets as ARM minus mobile) for years in the ME. AMD does the same thing with an
by dom0 10y ago
Intel platforms also had an ARC processor (they approximately cater the same markets as ARM minus mobile) for years in the ME.
AMD does the same thing with an ARM core.
Practically all peripherals contain at least one programmable processor.
Remote management / IPMI also usually works with an entirely separate ARM computer that's integrated with the main computers graphics unit -- basically a shared framebuffer, just in hardware.
- monocasa 10y agoFun fact: ARC derives originally from the SuperFX inside some SNES cartridges like Star Fox.
- D_Guidi 10y agoany source for this? should be an interesting Read
- 0xcde4c3db 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synopsys#ARC_International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synopsys#ARC_International
- ayuvar 10y agoIt blows my mind that the Super FX not only survived the collapse of Argonaut but went on to become so widely adopted by companies that presumably could make their own tiny microprocessors. So cool.
- samlittlewood 10y agoARC had been split out into Argonaut Technology Ltd. long before Argonaut Software hit the buffers. The success of the SuperFX chip opened doors for future work, but nothing from the SuperFX was carried over - it was 16 bit, with a compact instruction encoding, a gate level design using ECAD. A string of graphics hardware projects followed with a wide range of requirements, targeting 'interesting' (ie: cheapest) processes/standard cell libraries. These were all VHDL, and a flexible 32 bit embedded risc control processor emerged as a common theme. The configurability and robustness in the face of sketchy ecad toolchains made it a very saleable thing in it's own right.
- aexaey 10y ago> Intel platforms also had an ARC processor That is true for older designs. But didn't Intel switch from ARC to SPARC for their ME core not that long ago? Discussed here a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8813029 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8813029
- msbarnett 10y agoThey're ARC cores, not SPARC. That thread is full of misunderstandings of a PDF version of a presentation that incorrectly concluded it was looking at a SPARC core when it was looking at a newer model ARCcompact SPARC would be a terrible mismatch for what Intel wants out of its ME
- robert_foss 10y agoAMD CPUs and GPUs both have an integrated ARC processor that mainly deals with power management.