LSI has announced the addition of the multicore-capable PowerPC 476 microprocessor core and high-speed, embedded DRAM memory blocks to its portfolio of custom silicon intellectual property (IP). The processor core and memory blocks are designed to accelerate the development of leading-edge networking and storage system-on-chips (SoC) used in applications such as enterprise-class switches, routers, RAID storage, servers and base stations.

Custom multicore integrated circuits are said to allow OEMs to develop highly differentiated, high-performance solutions for compute-intensive applications. The PowerPC 476FP offering from LSI, available on the TSMC 40G process, operates at clock speeds in excess of 1.4GHz, delivering 2.5 Dhrystone MIPS per MHz. The embedded DRAM block operates at up to 500MHz, which is essential for real-time video processing and high-bandwidth networking applications.

LSI claims to minimise custom integrated circuit (IC) development cost and risk by providing OEMs with an IP portfolio that includes general- and special-purpose processors, protocol cores, a gigabit Ethernet PHY, high-speed serialiser-deserialisers (Serdes) and embedded memory. All embedded LSI processors are supported by development tools and operating systems. The 500MHz embedded DRAM core, licensed from TSMG, is the third generation of eDRAM IP available from LSI.