Hitachi shows second wave RISC MPU

Electronic News, July 11, 1994 by Jim DeTar

BRISBANE, CALIF.--Hitachi America will today launch the second generation of its Super H (SH) RISC processor technology with the launch of the SH7604--the first member of the SH-2 series of devices based on Hitachi's 32-bit RISC architecture. The company will also broaden its assault on the RISC market with the introduction of the SH7020/7021 lower-cost versions of the existing SH-1 series introduced in June 1993.

The SH7604 RISC processor integrates what is being touted as the industry's first direct interface to synchronous DRAMs. The device also combines an on-chip, 4KB, lowpower (100 mW at 5 volts) cache memory, on-chip digital signal processor (DSP) and a 32-bit external bus to target emerging embedded applications such as LAN/WAN networking equipment, laser printers and facsimile machines, game graphics and TV set-top boxes.

According to Dan Mansur, product manager at Hitachi America, "The SH7600 series is a logical progression from the SH7000 series and aims at a different market segment. Because the SH7604 can address more memory, has higher CPU performance, and includes the full 32-bit on-chip DSP, it is an optimum solution for communications and multimedia systems." The next item on Hitachi's SH roadmap is the SH-3 series, featuring added memory management, cache and PDA peripherals capability and due out in 1995.

A custom version of the new SH7604 chip has been selected by Sega of America and Sega Enterprises for two of its next-generation games: the Genesis 32X system and the CD-ROM platform Sega Saturn due out in Japan by year-end and in the U.S. early in 1995.

The chip has approximately the same die size, power dissipation and cost as the earlier SH7000 series (SH7032 and SH7034) devices, which are designed for portable applications such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and consumer electronics applications, but the SH7604 provides a performance differential. The SH7000 embedded controllers offer 16 MIPS at 5V (40MIPS/watt). At 5V, the SH7604 provides 25 Dhrystone MIPS with a 28.5MHz clock, or a 62.5 MIPS/watt rating. At 3.3V, the RISC chip reaches 17.5 MIPS at 20MHz.

Among the tools available to system developers for the SH7604 are C compilers, simulators/debuggers, in-circuit emulator, evaluation board and the Free Software Foundation's GNU tool chain for the PC. The SH7604 will be available in sample and production quantities in 3Q94; priced at $50.75 in 25,000-piece quantities.

Hitachi will also begin offering two new SH-1 series models today. The SH7020 and SH7021 are scaled down versions of the earlier SH-1 series SH7032 and SH7034 chips, which the company will continue to support. The primary difference is that the new SH7020/7021 have a reduced pin count and do not include the on-chip A/D converter on the SH7032/7034.

The SH7020 and SH7021, compact versions of the 32-bit SH7000 series, achieve 16 MIPS performance running 20MHz at 5 volts. The two devices are distinguished by their memory configurations. The Sh7020 features 16K ROM and 1K RAM, while the SH7021 offers 32K ROM and 1K RAM.

Both feature 32-bit RISC architecture with 5-stage pipelining that executes most instructions in one clock cycle, fixed 16-bit instruction set, on-chip DSP function, a variety of built-in peripherals including 2 channel serial I/O and 4 channel DMA, and power-conservation features such as sleep and standby modes that enable battery-powered applications. The SH7020 in 100-pin TQFP package is currently available priced at $19.25 in 10,000-unit quantities, while the SH7021 in same packaging and quantities is $19.95.

Separately, Hitachi is also rolling out the HD153041TF--a single-chip, 90Mbps data channel processor (DCP) targeting the high-density, highcapacity disk drive market. The HD153041TF DCP is said to allow data to move to and from the disk at rates up to 90Mbs--20 percent faster than currently available 72Mbs devices.

The Hitachi HD153041TF uses a thin (1.2mm high) 100-pin TQFP surface mount package that facilitates the design of low profile HDDs. Samples are available, priced at $14.50 in 1,000-unit quantities.

The HD153041TF is the latest generation of Hitachi's line of peak-detect architecture DCPs, and uses multizone recording to achieve high disk data densities. It uses Hitachi's 0.7-micron Hi-BiCMOS process technology to offer high performance with low power dissipation. Read mode dissipation is 1,000 milliwatts. Dissipation drops to 500 mW in servo mode, 50 mW in idle and 10 mW in sleep mode.

The HD153041TF DCP supports programmability--including multiple-zone recording functions for design flexibility--plus it features an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit, pulse detector, active filter, 4-burst servo demodulator, write clock synthesizer, data synchronizer and encoder/decoder with a precompensation circuit.