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The ARM Processor
or
The RISC for the Rest of Us

Building projects with the ARM Computer and derivatives
or
Confessions of an ARM Evangelist

I was overjoyed to find that VLSI Technology righthere in SiliconValley was the chief source of the ARM chip. As I had an ongoing businessrelationship with VLSI it proved easy to get ARM information and samplesfrom their Rep.
(Bob Roselli of Emerging Technical Sales. )

I had been studying the architectures of the available processors forseveral years, in the hope of make some sort of home brew computer, andhad been interested in the National 16C32 and the 68000. The simplicityof the ARM and its performance numbers impressed me. As a processor designermyself, I could appreciate the elegance, efficiency and symmetry of thedesign. Another good feature of the ARM was the fact that there was anauxiliary chip set available that one could use to design and make a high(at that time) performance computer. The ARM design promised a 3-4 MIPcomputer, which was 2 to 3 times the performance of then current 286 computers.This chip set consisted of: the ARM2; the MEMC1 which contained DRAM controller,inverted page table MMU and sound and video DMA channels; VIDC with 4 to8 bit per pixel video and sound output at up to VGA resolution, and theIOC with serial keyboard interface, interrupt controller and peripheraldecodes. I resolved to get hold of this computer. Acorn unfortunately wouldnot sell any of its computers to the US market, so I had to find a smallcomputer store in Manchester to ship me an Acorn Archimedes A310 (See Figure1).

The Acorn Archimedes A310 had (beside the ARM and Support Chips) 1 Mbyteof RAM, a floppy, keyboard, video output, and serial and parallel ports.With the addition of a multisync monitor, I was in business. I verifiedthe advertised performance. I wrote a Basic version of the Mandlebrot setand was impressed by the fact that it was 10 times faster than the sameBasic program running on my 8 MHz AT. This performance improvement wasnot only due to the shear processor power, but also due to the superiorBASIC interpreter and the simple, but efficient video display architecture.After all, the best VGA chip is NO VGA. The complicated access modes andnon-packed pixels in a VGA display chip get in the way of the CPU's accessto the display RAM.

Unfortunately getting an Acorn computer proved to be very difficultand involve losing the unit in the Heathrow Airport collecting insuranceand receiving a replacement. This took 4 months!

Figure 1. ACORN ARCHIMEMES A310 BLOCK DIAGRAM.

At this time the ARM processor was tightly connected to Acorn and althoughAcorn had thought it would be nice to have wider use for the chip, it hadno way of actually promoting the architecture.

I contacted the division of VLSI technology that was supporting theARM in Tempe, Arizona and offered to develop an ARM test board for them.Unfortunately, the job went to another consultant who was not able to completethe job. The problem was that the development software only operated onthe Acorn computer itself, or on a hokey ARM based PC co-processor board.

This board was only manufactured by Acorn and had a funky operatingsystem that was fundamentally incompatible with PC files. What a Pain!This was going to be harder than I thought! (RISCOS has had 6 years ofdevelopment since then - see Acorn RISC Technology)

In frustration, I went off to Redwood City to work with some insanelygreat guys, building black computers. Interesting to note - the first NeXT(25Mhz 68030) had the same Dhrystone rating (6000) as the 8 Mhz ARM basedA310 computer - showing the inherent ARM efficiency.

Despite these software problems, Apple computer had been persuaded totry an ARM project to replace the obsolete Apple II, code named theMobius.The result was very impressive. Not only was the ARM based computer prototypeable to emulate the 6502 and 65C816 processors, it even ran Macintosh softwarefaster than the 68000 could. Of course this had to be nipped in the budand the project was terminated. Apple would have to find a home for theARM that was not threatening to the existing computer groups. After all,the ARM processor was owned by a direct competitor. (Acorn has [had] alarge percentage of the UK education market).

In order to promote the ARM processor and make it possible for Appleto buy the CPU, the Acorn advanced development group that had developedthe ARM was spun off to make a new company called ARM Ltd. (Advanced RISCMachines Ltd) , partly owned by Acorn, Apple Computer, VLSI Technology,and others.

The VLSI ARM application group that had originally been in Arizona wasrestarted in San Jose, California, making it possible for me to join. (After20 years in one spot, I was firmly planted in Silicon Valley)

To make a short story long I eventually got a job, working for VLSITechnology , which company happens to make the ARM processor, and becamethe Hardware Applications manager. So I now I am paid to do what I wouldhave wanted to do in my home lab.

SIDEBAR1- DATES

Why it hasn't been easy to do an ARM project?

The ARM60 is quite different from the typical CPU or Micro-controllernormally discussed in the popular computing press.

Looking at the pinnout will cause most experimenters to throw up theirhands in frustration.
"Where is the IORD and IOWR pins and where are the other friendlyIntel type signals?"
The ARM60 was meant to be CONTROLLED by a memory controller which in turnhad responsibility for generating the other (normal ?) control signalsseen by RAM, ROM, and IO devices. The Memory controller can be made from2-3 GALs in the case of a static RAM system. The designer would then adda set of peripheral chips in the final board that are addressed in memoryspace as if they were static RAM .

Making it easy (or easier - its never THAT easy)
As Hardware applications manger, one of my first tasks was to build developmentcards so the customers would not have a steep learning curve . Also I wantedto see I if I could design, build and program the ARM for myself afterall those years of thinking about it.

In this endeavor I had the help of the wise folks at ARM Ltd.
The first development board was the PID (or Platform Independent DevelopmentBoard. This board used the ARM600 which is and ARM6 cell with 4KBytes orcache , an MMU, and a write buffer. In addition the ARM600 has a co-processorport for use with a Floating point co-processor or other customer inventedco-processor.

The PID (currently the PID3) featured a large DRAM of 1 to 16 Mbytes(according to which 30 pin SIMMs are installed), a large EPROM space of128K to 4Mbytes, QuickLogic PGA based memory controller, and interruptcontroller. The output of the memory controller contains the standard intelIORD and IOWR pulses. On board is also a 16C551 serial/Parallel port chip.Communication to the host computer is accomplished through the serial port.Once the application has been developed , it can be transported to theEprom and live independently from the host - hence the board name. Expansionto customers own application is provided by an "AT " like slot.This board has proved popular with our ARM developers.

Meanwhile in merry olde England, the folks at ARM Ltd. developed thePIE (or Platform Independent Evaluation) board. This little guy has 128Kof SRAM, one 128K EPROM and 2 GALS to run and decode memory space. Theserial port function is provided by a Signetics 2691. Expansion is somewhatmore difficult with this board as it has only the HP compatible logic analyzerports for add on circuitry.

ARM Applied - What companies have done with the ARM.

Figure 2 - 3DO Interactive MultiMedia Player

The ARM60 was designed into the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer as the originaldesigners worked on the Apple ARM project. 3DO opted for the ARM60 runningat 16 Mhz and subsequent versions never used the faster cached ARM610 orARM710. The original design team was replaced by a crew from Apple`s PowerComputing program who discarded the original design and opted for a powerPC version. This (as you can see) never came to market. Think of what couldhave happened if the ARM60 had been replaced by an ARM610/710 or even theSA110 StrongARM running at 265Mhz!.

The 3DO machine faded after a full court press by the Sony PlayStationwhich uses a MIPS3000 RISC core. The Play Station may soon fade after theSuper Nintendo appears!

Figure 3 - Newton Block Diagram

Apple decided to use the the ARM610 (with added cache, MMU and writebuffer) in the Newton (tm) Message Pad. The Newton has remained the premierPDA despite chalenges by Microsoft and the embedded 386 processor. WinPad-Yech!

Microshift has come back with Windows-CE (in a project formally knownas Pegasus) based on the SH3 RISC by Hitachi. Apple's latewst Newton hasbeen announced with the StrongARM processor built by ARM licensee DigitalSemi-Conductors (DEC). This version of the ARM operates at 100 Mhz givinga 5-10x performance boost over the original 20 Mhz ARM610.

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