IntellaSys has announced its SEAforth 40C18, a 40-core multicore processor designed for embedded control in wireless, portable, and distributed data processing applications. The SEAforth 40C18 can execute 80% of its VentureForth instructions in 1.38 ns with a power consumption of 7 mW or less per CPU.
The 40C18 is an array of 40 fully functional CPUs operating asynchronously. Each core is a complete computer with its own ROM, RAM, and interprocessor communication. Together they can deliver up to 26 billion operations per second. IntellaSys claim it has the smallest core size design (0.13 mm2), and consumes 28 times less power than competing architectures while running 240 times faster.
According to Chuck Moore, CTO of IntellaSys and inventor of the Forth programming language, this results from providing RAM and ROM for each core, which enables individual cores to run at the full native speed of the silicon instead of being limited by an external system clock frequency.
Automatic intercore synchronisation allows the processors to share the computing load by passing data, status signals and even code blocks back and forth. When individual CPUs are not active, they automatically shut down or sleep.
When it becomes available in sample and production quantities, the processor will be offered with VentureForth, a Forth-based IDE that features fully interactive programming, testing, and debugging facilities. VentureForth includes compilers for Windows and Linux and a simulator for debugging, as well as low-level primitives and the high-level tools necessary for mapping programs across the array of cores in a SEAforth processor.
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