The document discusses how programmable processor solutions are increasingly the best answer for system developers due to performance, cost, and time-to-market factors. Rapid increases in processor performance coupled with exploding design costs mean programmable devices will take a larger role. Programmable processors can now meet performance needs, share design costs across products to lower costs, and speed time-to-market through flexibility. The falling cost of transistors allows investing in higher-performance processor cores to further reduce costs and accelerate time-to-market, making programmable solutions increasingly compelling.

1. At the core of the user experience.™
John Bourgoin
Chairman & CEO
October 30, 2002
Nikkei Embedded ProcessorNikkei Embedded Processor
Symposium 2002Symposium 2002

2. At the core of the user experience.TM
The Digital World

3. At the core of the user experience.TM
Changing Forces in Design Decisions
 90nm technology changes the rules….
 Product lifecycles shrinking faster…..
Rapid processor performance increases coupled with exploding
NRE’s
dictate that
programmable devices will take a larger share of the SOC
function
These require a change in design approach…

4. At the core of the user experience.TM
DSPs, Specialty
Processors
DSPs, Specialty
Processors
Options for the SOC Developer
MicroprocessorsMicroprocessors
Dedicated
Hardware
Dedicated
Hardware
Flexibility, Adaptability, Upgradability
Source: John Hennessy
Perfo

5. At the core of the user experience.TM
Key Questions for Solutions Options
1. Can it perform the application?
 Performance, power, feature set, etc.
2. Can it meet the cost needs for the market?
 Combination of NRE, unit, and opportunity costs
3. Can I get it to market early?
 Or at least early enough

6. At the core of the user experience.TM
Increasingly,
Programmable Solutions
are the Answers
Why?
Standard, programmable cores
increasingly address all three issues as
performance grows rapidly.

7. At the core of the user experience.™
Question 1:
Can it perform the function?

8. At the core of the user experience.TM
Historical Perspective
Performance
Time
Programmable Microprocessor
Performance Needed
by Market for a Given
Function
Hard-wired Logic
or Specialized
Processor
Performance
Gap
Time-to-Market Sacrifice
Headroom for
Other Functions

9. At the core of the user experience.TM
Cheap Transistors Change the Game
Programmable Microprocessor
Hard-wired Logic
or Specialized
Processor
Performance
Gap
Time-to-Market Sacrifice
Invest transistors to
boost processor performance,
recover time to market.
Performance
Time

10. At the core of the user experience.TM
New Systems Need Performance
 More features and functions each generation
 Device convergence adding complexity
 Greater streaming media content
 High computational loads
 High throughput demands
 High task capacity
 Real-time deadlines
 Security issues
 Quality of service
Meeting these challenges with a programmable solution requires very
high performance
Traffic shaping
Load balancing
“Deep” packet processing
Billing and statistics
Stateful firewalls
Interactive video
Wireless games
Wireless local loop
4G
3G
W/CDMA
CDMA-2000
IP over Sonet
IPv6
Peer-to-peer
VoP
Internet edge routing
MPLS
QoS
Multi-service processors
AES
IPSec
OC-768
OC-192
802.11a
Artificial intelligence
Voice synthesis
Voice recognition
Virtual reality
Digital TV
HDTV
AAC
3D Audio
RAID
Videoconferencing
Multimedia
MPEG4
MPEG2
Video processing
Image processing
Streaming video
JPEG2000
Data compression
Software radio
Vocoding
xDSL
Soft Peripherals
Steerable antenna arrays
Powertrain control
Navigation systems
Telematics
Digital radio
High-realism 3D animation
Games AC-3
MP3
WMA
RSA
Moore’s Law to the rescue

11. At the core of the user experience.TM
Performance per $ Accelerates
0.5 0.81 1.31 2.1 3.4 5.4 8.7 14 22.5 36 58
94
150
242
389
625
1005
1615
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
0x
500x
1000x
1500x
2000x
2500x
3000x
3500x
Integer performance per dollar
increasing at 61% per year
MIPSper$
ImprovementSince1990
Source: ITRS & MIPS TechnologiesSource: ITRS & MIPS Technologies

12. At the core of the user experience.TM
Effective Performance
Will Increase Even Faster!
 Architecture enhancements will boost streaming-media performance
even higher
 Advanced microarchitecture techniques will:
 Increase utilization of existing transistors, which boosts
processor throughput and response times
 Increase processor tolerance to slow memories
 Chip multiprocessing will exploit additional levels of parallelism
 Floating-point performance rising even faster than integer

13. At the core of the user experience.TM
Dedicated
Hardware
Dedicated
Hardware
DSPs, Specialty
Processors
DSPs, Specialty
Processors
Options for the System Developer
MicroprocessorsMicroprocessorsMicroprocessorsMicroprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Augmented
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Augmented
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Augmented
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Augmented
Microprocessors
Flexibility, Adaptability, Upgradability
Perfo
High-Performance
Augmented
Microprocessors
High-Performance
Augmented
Microprocessors

14. At the core of the user experience.™
Question 2:
Can it meet the cost needs
of the market?

15. At the core of the user experience.TM
Mask Costs Go Ballistic
$0K
$200K
$400K
$600K
$800K
$1,000K
$1,200K
0.35µ 0.25µ 0.18µ 0.13µ 0.10µ
Process Technology Node
MaskCostsperSet

16. At the core of the user experience.TM
2003
NRE Costs Skyrocket
Design
Costs
Mask
Costs
Mfg.
Costs
$0M
$1M
$2M
$3M
$4M
$5M
$6M
$7M
$8M
$9M
$10M
1995
(0.35um)
1997
(0.25um)
1999
(0.18um)
2001
(0.13um)
2003
(0.10um)
Design
100%
Mfg.
(250KU)
Assumptions: 6M → 70M transistors, 3 mask spins, 250K Units,
transistor costs and productivity projected from the ITRS
62%
Masks
Design
100%
Masks
Mfg.
(250KU)
1995
13%

17. At the core of the user experience.TM
Die Cost Impact of Low Volumes:
Total Cost of Production
$53.75
$19.67
$7.99
$4.57 $3.38 $3.04
$0.00
$10.00
$20.00
$30.00
$40.00
$50.00
$60.00
100K 300K 1M 3M 10M 30M
Unit Volumes
TotalCost/Die
Fully Amortized Die Cost
Assumptions: $2M mask charge, 25 wafer min lot size, $3000/300mm wafer, $3M dev cost

18. At the core of the user experience.TM
Programmability Leverages Design Costs Across
Multiple Products
 Right first time
 Simpler designs
 More design reuse
 Broader applicability
Memory
AFE
10/
100
Phy
Memory
Control
Std
Per
Voice
band
AFE
10/100
MAC
Standard
Peripherals
Hardware
AAL
DSL Phy
Security
Vocoders
& Fax (DSP)
µP
Core

19. At the core of the user experience.TM
Programmability Lowers NRE
 Lower total mask costs
 Software flexibility increases 1st
silicon success
 Reuse of known-good processor cores
 Product changes without hardware redesign
 Fewer silicon spins (fewer mask sets)
 Lower design costs
 Less complex SOC designs (vs. alternatives)
 Greater reuse of hardware blocks (processors)
 Reuse complete SOC designs in other products and in
upgraded products

20. At the core of the user experience.™
Question 3:
Can I get it to market early?

21. At the core of the user experience.TM
One Million
Units
Time-to-Market Is Vital
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Years After Introduction
SalesVolume
B&W TVCable TVColor TVVCRPCCellularPCS DVBDVD
The impact of being late to market is becoming more significant
Source: Semico Research

22. At the core of the user experience.TM
The Value of Time-to-Market
Time-to-market is an increasingly large factor
in a product’s total integrated profit
Assumes: 18 month market ramp, 40 month product life, $10M NRE, 50% margins
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
0 3 6 9 12 15
Months Late
Profits

23. At the core of the user experience.TM
Time-in-Market Boosts Integrated Profit
Time
Dwell Time in Market
Longer Time at
Higher
Profitability
Hardwired
Solution
Programmable Solution
Flexibility Extends Time-in-Market
Flexibility
Reduces
Design Time
and NRE
RevenueCosts
Sooner to Revenue
Profit
NRE
Unit Costs

24. At the core of the user experience.TM
Programmability Speeds Time-to-Market and
Extends Time-in-Market
 Reduced SOC development time
 Late binding of product features: start design early, finalize after
tape-out
 Adaptability to late changing standards
 Greater design reuse, higher productivity
 Extended product lifetime
 Tweak to match changing market conditions
 Protection from obsolescence
 Reuse SOC in derivative products
 Reuse SOC in adjacent products

25. At the core of the user experience.™
Key to Success

26. At the core of the user experience.™
Apply the falling cost of transistors
to lower
the rising costs of development

27. At the core of the user experience.TM
Disappearing Cost of Transistors
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
1997 1999 2001* 2003* 2005*
µCents/transistor
* Source: ITRS 2001, packaged parts + 60% GPM
-30% / year

28. At the core of the user experience.TM
Strategy for the Future
 Apply falling transistor costs to
Higher-performance processor cores 
Enabling more programmable solutions 
Giving lower NRE, faster time-to-market 
Thus lower costs, higher revenues 
And, increased profits
 How?
 8  32  64  128-bit architectures
 Vector processing, data-parallel SIMD ALUs
 Fine-grain multithreading
 High-frequency instruction-parallel pipelines
 Chip multiprocessing (CMP)

29. At the core of the user experience.™
Processor Performance
Increasingly Will Be Applied to Improve NRE
&
Time in Market

30. At the core of the user experience.™
Thank You