AuthorYang Biling (WeChat ID: Rosanne_yang) Senior Editor of Smart Products Circle

Committed to developing small-area, low-power, high-efficiency 32-bit embedded processor IP, Andes Technology recently launched a new overall solution for IoT applications at the 2016 Andes Embedded Technology Forum – the Hornet Rapid Start Design Solution Package, aiming to assist customers in quickly and successfully developing IoT system chips and applications.

The current trend in the IoT market is evident, with development cycles for IoT products becoming shorter and moving towards diverse, small-scale, fragmented directions. A significant amount of design effort is required, and how to utilize mature, easy-to-use development tools and database information to quickly and effectively develop low-power, high-performance products is key to gaining market competitiveness. Hornet possesses these advantages.

According to Andes Technology’s General Manager Lin Zhiming, the Hornet solution includes AndesCore N650 core IP, AndeShape system-on-chip design startup package, AndeSight MCU software development environment and software examples, as well as optional AndeShape ADP-XC7 or Andino F1 development platforms/boards.

The N650 is the company’s latest 32-bit IP designed specifically for low-power IoT applications, positioned as an upgrade solution for 8-bit 8051 MCUs and a replacement for the 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0. Compared to Cortex-M0, N650 offers higher performance, lower power consumption, and lower cost. The performance comparison of both on the same TSMC 90LP process is shown in the table below:

The N650 core architecture also uses the new AE100 platform IP, which includes AHB-Lite master device multiplexers, AHB decoders, general-purpose I/O, watchdog timers, programmable timers, serial peripheral interfaces, and other peripheral functions required for designing IoT system chips, ensuring that users can quickly start and conduct IoT system chip design and development.

“N650 can achieve 25% higher performance than Cortex-M0 at the same size, with 40% higher efficiency and lower costs compared to the latter. Moreover, Andes’ N650 rapid development tool Quick-start Design is superior to Cortex-M0’s Fast track kit. With the advantages of low power consumption and high efficiency, N650 will assist customers in easily and accurately realizing their targeted IoT application designs,” said Lin Zhiming.

Since launching its first 32-bit embedded processor core, the company has become one of the main suppliers of processor core IP for IC design manufacturers in Taiwan and mainland China after years of effort. In addition to the newly released N6 series products, the current family members under Andes’ own CPU architecture (AndesStar) include AndesCore N7, N8, N9, N10, D10, N13, S8, and E8 series products, each targeting different emerging embedded application markets.

For instance, for consumer applications replacing 8-bit/16-bit MCUs, the N8 series, with small gate counts and high power efficiency, is the best choice; the S8 family features security functions and is designed for smart cards and secure cards; the N9 series is characterized by high cost-performance, suitable for embedded controller markets such as MCUs, automotive control, and storage devices; while the rich multimedia capabilities and low power features make the N10 series a competitive application processor in portable multimedia applications; high-performance N12 and N13 series aim to meet the performance requirements of markets such as home entertainment, digital set-top boxes, networking, and mobile internet devices.

Lin Zhiming stated that currently, the market share of IP processor suppliers is dominated by ARM, holding 80% of the market, followed by 7% for the second, 5% for the third, and 3% for the fourth. Currently, Andes ranks fifth, but aims to challenge the annual production target of 600 million chips using its IP, striving to sit fifth and look towards fourth in the global IP processor supplier ranking, and working towards higher rankings. The IoT brings both opportunities and challenges, and Andes Technology aims to assist customers in quickly integrating processors into new products, providing customized services based on customer applications, continuously optimizing designs for the Andes processor architecture to enhance customer system performance and reduce chip costs, meeting customer demands for high-quality products and rapid market launch.

Click “Read the original text” to enter IBM’s official website for detailed information on the global IoT platform: