Synopsys ARC VPX2, VPX3, VPX5 and VPX6 DSP Processors

Synopsys ARC® VPX DSP IP is a family of VLIW/SIMD processors targeting a broad range of signal processing applications, from always-on devices to automotive ADAS to communications and high-performance computing.

The VPX Family supports multiple vector lengths and core configurations:

• 128-bit vector word – VPX2 (single core), VPX2x2 (dual core)
• 256-bit vector word – VPX3 (single core), VPX3x2 (dual core)
• 512-bit vector word – VPX5 (single core), VPX5x2 (dual core), VPX5x4 (quad core)
• 1024-bit vector word – VPX6 (single core), VPX6x2 (dual core), VPX6x4 (quad core)

VPX DSP processors feature a 4-way VLIW architecture optimally balanced to achieve high performance with low power consumption. Each VPX DSP core integrates a high-performance 32-bit scalar pipeline and a multi-slot vector processing unit supporting 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit SIMD computations. Each VPX DSP core is capable of executing one scalar and three vector instructions per cycle. The VPX DSPs are supported by configurable instruction and data caches for scalar operations and vector closely-coupled memory (VCCM) with single cycle access for vector processing. Like all ARC processors, the VPX DSPs are highly scalable and configurable, enabling users to tailor them to meet specific performance-power-area (PPA) requirements.

Each VPX DSP core has up to three parallel floating-point processing pipelines, including two optional IEEE-754 compliant vector floating point units that support both full- (32-bit) and half- (16-bit) precision floating point operations. The VPX cores also have the option to add a dedicated vector floating point pipe that accelerates an extensive set of math functions including div, √x, 1/√x, sin(x), cos(x), log₂(x), 2^x, and e^x.

To speed application software development, the VPX Family is supported by Synopsys’ ARC MetaWare tools, which provide a comprehensive and vector-length agnostic software programming environment that enables code portability among all members of the VPX family. The tool suite includes an optimizing C/C++ vector compiler, debugger, instruction set simulator, as well as vector-based DSP, machine learning inference, linear algebra and vision processing libraries.

Synopsys ARC VPX DSP Processor Block Diagram