EnCore Processor

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EnCore Calton vs. Small Finger Branded-EnCore-Calton-Finger-01.jpg
EnCore Calton vs. Small Finger

The EnCore microprocessor family is a configurable and extendable implementation of a compact 32-bit RISC instruction set architecture - developed by the PASTA Research Group at the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. The following are key features of the EnCore microprocessor family:

All of the EnCore test chips are named after hills in Edinburgh; Calton, being the smallest, is the first of these. The second, Castle, is named after the rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built.

EnCore Calton

Photomicrograph picture of EnCore Calton Photomicrograph.jpg
Photomicrograph picture of EnCore Calton

The first silicon implementation of the EnCore processor is a test-chip code-named Calton, fabricated in a generic 130nm CMOS process using a standard ASIC flow.

EnCore Castle

Chip Layout of EnCore Castle Castle Chip Layout.png
Chip Layout of EnCore Castle

The second silicon implementation of an extended EnCore processor is a test-chip codenamed Castle, fabricated in a generic 90nm CMOS process.

The Castle chip contains an extended version of the EnCore processor, together with a 32KB 4-way set-associative Instruction Cache, and a 32KB 4-way set-associative Data Cache. It is embedded within a system-on-chip (SoC) design that provides a generic 32-bit memory interface, as well as interrupt, clocks and reset signals.

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