XMOS ships low-power family

XMOS Semiconductor, the reprogrammable systems chip company, has come up with a $5 part to kick off a new low-power family of chips called the L Series in succession to last year's G Series.

The XMOS L series comes in single core and dual core versions. The single core is launched today. It is called XS1-L1. The dual core, called XS1-L2, is to be launched in Q309.

The LS1 has 8 threads, performs 400 MIPS, has 64KBytes of SRAM, uses under 500microA in sleep mode and 15mA in standby

When XMOS launches its dual core L series chip, the XS1-L2, it will have 16 threads, 800MIPS, 128KBytes of SRAM, 1mA sleep mode, and 30mA standby.

XMOS concedes that it could put many more processors on a chip if customers wanted them. "We've put 64 processors on a board, and we could put them on one chip", says XMOS co-founder and CTO Professor David May FRS, "but most of the action of the electronics industry is at the bottom end."

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The XS1-L1 is made on a 65nm process and can be linked with any number of other devices. The resulting linked-up system can be programmed as a single chip. 450 engineers are currently developing apps for XMOS devices, and company claims 400 customers.

Applications are naturally very diverse. One user of an XS1-L1 programmed the chip to control a GPS-enabled LED advertising sign which works out where it is within a city, and tailors its ad to that particular area of the city.

When XMOS was founded, it said it would be making ICs selling for $1 apiece. Asked if that was a thing of the past, Foster replies: "No it's a thing of the future. We have added more functionality, because that's what our customers have asked for, but the $1 chip is still possible."

Foster reckons XMOS will be shipping 'hundreds of thousands of units a month', by the end of 2009.

Asked whether the company will need more capital, Foster replies: "It's pretty close. We'll reach break-even next year. That's within five years of founding."