Virage Logic announced the availability of its new ARC 601 32-bit microprocessor core, the first ARC processor Virage Logic has brought to market since its acquisition of ARC International.

It combines small size, low power, and performance. The ARC 601 runs at 532MHz (1.2 DMIPS/MHz), consuming just 13 µW/MHz in 65-nanometer (nm) process technology and at only 0.039mm square, the ARC 601 will fit 2.5 times into the size of the dot (12 point font) at the end of a sentence. The processor is available today and has already been licensed to several of Virage Logic’s lead customers.

Designers can tailor the ARC 601 to meet their specific application needs and exclude processor features that are not required, further reducing area, power consumption and cost. The processor’s single-cycle ICCM (Instruction Closely Coupled Memory) and DCCM (Data Closely Coupled Memory) optimize embedded performance while minimizing the overall system footprint. The ARC 601 is also extensible with user-defined instructions and register settings that can deliver a performance boost of five to 100 times for critical routines.

The ARC 601 features the size-optimized ARCompact 16-/32-bit Instruction Set Architecture that Virage Logic claims can reduce code size by as much as 40%. This makes it an ideal solution for deeply embedded applications or for upgrading 8-bit and 16-bit microcontroller applications to 32-bit performance where small size and low power are essential. The ARC 601 is instruction set compatible with all of the processors in the ARC 600 and ARC 700 families.

The ARC 601 processor is supported by a full suite of development tools. This includes the MetaWare Development Kit (v8.4.0) that generates efficient code ideal for deeply embedded applications, the ARC simulators including xCAM (v2.1.7) and xISS (v3.1), and the ARChitect configuration tool (v2.14.79).

Targeted at audio, imaging, portable, storage, consumer, wireless and security applications, the 32-bit ARC 601 processor core and all of the tools needed for development are available now.