Motorola Ships First 1 GHz Processor Implementing The PowerPC Instruction Set Architecture

Manufactured Using Silicon-on-Insulator Technology, Shipment of MPC7455 Achieves PowerPC Instruction Set Architecture Milestone

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Networking and computing product manufacturers can now take advantage of the most powerful processor implementing the PowerPC instruction set architecture on the market today. With the shipment of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabricated MPC7455 and MPC7445 processors, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - news), the market share leader in integrated circuits for communications systems, today announced that the MPC7455 is the first processor implementing the PowerPC instruction set architecture to ship at 1 GHz speeds.

Delivering a high level of performance in combination with very efficient power consumption across virtually all speeds, these innovative processors provide networking and computing product OEMs with a best-in-class solution for a wide range of host processor applications-including high performance network infrastructure and telecommunications equipment, computing products and embedded systems.

"Motorola has achieved two significant milestones for the industry with these new products," stated Tony Massimini, chief of technology with Semico Research Corporation. "The MPC7455 shipping at 1 GHz speeds means that Motorola delivers the most powerful PowerPC architecture host processor on the market. As the first to ship PowerPC architecture-based SOI fabricated processors at 1 GHz speeds, Motorola demonstrates mastery of needs in the high performance computing, portable and wireless arenas."

One significant adopter of the MPC7445 is Ericsson, a leading supplier of wireless infrastructure equipment, who has chosen the product for a part of their GPRS backbone system. The MPC7445 is allowing Ericsson to meet the highly demanding solution criteria and time-to-market needs that their customer base demands from them.

"In our first generation product, Pirus has currently designed in the Motorola 7450 and we have selected Motorola's powerful MPC7455 for our next generation storage networking platform," stated Rich Corley, founder and executive vice president of technology at Pirus Networks. "The Motorola MPC7455's unsurpassed performance, unprecedented level of vendor support, along with the comprehensive suite of software and development tools available for the PowerPC instruction set architecture, further enables Pirus to offer higher performing intelligent services as part of our industry leading storage networking platform, the PSX-1000."

"We are excited at the prospect of this new addition to the Motorola's G4 family, as it will further enhance the performance of our COTS processor products," said Richard Kirk, product manager with Radstone Technology's Processor Group. "This extra processing power will be particularly useful to our customers who require sonar, radar, navigation and terrain mapping applications. It will not only meet their current requirements but also enable them to future-proof their systems against the increasing performance demands of this marketplace." He added, "Radstone has been successfully designing with the leading edge of Motorola's PowerPC processor roadmap since 1995 and have been supplying products powered by the G4 since its launch."

EEMBC Benchmarks

Motorola also announced the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) certified benchmark scores for the MPC7455. Demonstrating the capability of the MPC7455 to serve the processing needs of a variety of market segments, Motorola has benchmarked its 1 GHz MPC7455 processor in five different application areas using EEMBC's out-of-the-box certification type: automotive/industrial, consumer, networking, office automation, and telecommunications.

Motorola has achieved the highest benchmark scores certified by EEMBC to date in all five application areas.

     *  Automotive/Industrial: 889.3
     *  Consumer: 122.6
     *  Networking: 30.4
     *  Office Automation: 1238.6
     *  Telecommunications: 27.2

"The performance of Motorola's MPC7455 is tremendous, with data to prove it in all 5 application areas," said Markus Levy, EEMBC president. "But it is equally significant that this performance has been certified according to objective, unbiased benchmarks that the majority of the microprocessor vendors in the world have agreed upon. In publicizing these scores, Motorola is helping to raise standards both for measuring processor performance and for the way embedded processors are marketed."

Features Designed to Optimize Functionality

Designed to be pin-compatible with Motorola's MPC7451/MPC7450 in a 484-pin CBGA package, the MPC7455 reaches speeds of 1 GHz with a core voltage of 1.6V and includes 256KB of on-chip L2 cache with support of up to 2MB of backside L3 cache. The MPC7445, pin-compatible with Motorola's MPC7441 in a 360-pin CBGA package, is designed to deliver lower power consumption at speeds up to 800 MHz with a core voltage of 1.3V and 256KB of integrated L2 Cache. Both devices benefit from Motorola's HiPerMOS silicon-on-insulator process technology, enabling the processor to deliver increased performance over bulk CMOS technology. In addition to increased performance, SOI technology offers excellent low power capability, making the devices ideal for applications in the wireless and portable arenas.

In addition to the speed milestones, the MPC7455/7445 offer the following features designed to further optimize the processors' functionality in embedded applications:

    *  Full symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support - Allows customers to
       easily scale their designs with multiple processors to deliver much
       higher system performance
    *  More block address translation (BAT) registers - increased from 8 to 16
       to support efficient embedded operating systems through high speed
       mapping of additional large blocks of data.
    *  Cache Locking -- Cache way locking has been added to the L1 caches,
       allowing key performance algorithms and code to be locked in the L1
       cache.
    *  Continued support of the L3 cache on the MPC7455 helps assure system
       compatibility for customers of Motorola's MPC745x products.

As with other Motorola processors implementing the PowerPC instruction set architecture, the MPC7455 and MPC7445 enjoy support from an extensive suite of software and development tools from Motorola's Smart Networks Alliance members.

Pricing and Availability

The MPC7455 is shipping today, and the MPC7445 is currently sampling. Suggested retail pricing for the MPC7445 at 800 MHz is $125 in 10k quantities. Suggested retail pricing for the MPC7455 at 1 GHz is $295 in 10k quantities.

About Motorola

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA(TM) system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, faster and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $4.9 billion (USD) in 2001. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - news) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2001 were $29.5 billion. http://www.motorola.com

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