PISCATAWAY, N.J. – November 3, 2010 – Power.org™, the open collaborative organization that enables, develops and promotes Power Architecture® technology, has finalized the Power ISA™ Version 2.06 Revision B, which allows multiple operating systems to run over multiple embedded cores providing the requisite isolation and protection while increasing performance through hardware virtualization. Power ISA is the base for all Power processor hardware and software.
“Power Architecture technology, the first to address multicore and hardware support for virtualization, previously integrated Power ISA enablement for those elements on servers in 2001, which has gained widespread use in commercial applications. Extending these capabilities to the embedded space is a natural progression for the technology,” said Kaveh Massoudian, CTO, Power.org Strategic Alliance at IBM. “Power ISA Version 2.06 Revision B continues to demonstrate unique differentiation by addressing both 32 and 64 bit for computing and embedded applications with a single, unified instruction set architecture, which delivers the industry’s highest levels of scalability, flexibility, and reliability.”
Increasingly, developers are adopting multicore SOC designs in the embedded space. The Power ISA Version 2.06 Revision B allows systems built to its specification to improve virtualization capabilities and to enhance reliability, important characteristics for multicore solutions. The enhancements introduced in this version take hardware virtualization to the embedded space and provide a standard approach for third party software that allows guest operating systems to leverage the hardware virtualization in a unified approach. This eliminates the need for redundant third party software and reduces development costs and at the same time helps accelerate market deployment schedules.
Freescale Semiconductor, working in concert with IBM, served as the leading contributor to the Hypervisor 2.06 and 2.06B specifications. Several of the company’s QorIQ multicore processors utilize the hardware accelerated virtualization enhancements, as defined in the Power Architecture ISA 2.06 and 2.06B specifications, for the embedded market. Freescale’s QorIQ e500mc and e5500 processor cores support these specifications, and support for the specifications is also planned for future Freescale processor implementations and technologies.
For more information and complete details on Version 2.06 Revision B, visit www.power.org/resources/downloads/PowerISA_V2.0[…].
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Since 2005 when Power.org was founded, the organization has leveraged its members’ expertise and commitment to deliver new standards, programs and increased business value to the design engineering community, while growing as an organization. The Power.org ecosystem is an open community comprised of companies that design, develop, build and support wide breadth of Power Architecture expertise and solutions including microprocessors, design tools, hardware vendors, software, OEM and foundries.
Collaborative innovation is the hallmark of the Power.org community. Power Architecture technology offers the broadest market and application coverage of any instruction set architecture available. The technology is behind millions of innovative products, including the world’s fastest supercomputers, leading video game consoles, and electronic systems in most of today’s car models. Every phone call, email and Web page touches hundreds of Power Architecture systems. For information, visit www.power.org.
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