Motorola PowerPC^TM Processor Delivers New Power Management Features, Higher Performance

Low-Power, Gigahertz-Class Version of MPC7447A Processor Containing a PowerPC Core Consumes Less Than 10W, Provides Optimal Solution for Power-Sensitive Embedded Designs

Feb. 23, 2004 - System developers can rev up the performance of their embedded applications while staying within tight power budgets by using the MPC7447A processor from Motorola, Inc. This high-performance, power-efficient 32-bit RISC device, operating in excess of 1.4GHz, is the latest and fastest member of the MPC74xx PowerPC processor family.

The MPC7447A offers developers on-chip power management features, such as the ability to change clock frequencies dynamically. This capability enables users to change CPU clock speed on the fly and significantly reduce processor power consumption to match performance with application requirements. The MPC7447A processor also contains a temperature sensing diode that can be used to monitor die temperature under various operating conditions.

When operating at 1.42GHz, the MPC7447A has a typical power consumption of less than 20W. A lower-power version of the MPC7447A, consuming less than 10W at 1167MHz, is available for power-sensitive applications that require gigahertz-class performance.

At the heart of the MPC7447A is a high-speed superscalar PowerPC core that is capable of issuing four instructions per clock cycle (three instructions + branch) into eleven independent execution units. Additional architectural features that distinguish the MPC7447A include 512KB of on-chip L2 cache, full symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support, a 64-bit bus interface, and a full 128-bit implementation of Motorola's AltiVec^TM Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) vector processing technology.

MPC7447A processors are pin-for-pin compatible with Motorola's MPC7445 and MPC7447 processors. This pin-compatible migration path helps customers reduce their development costs, accelerates time to market, and ensures software compatibility.

Pricing and Availability
Initial samples of the MPC7447A PowerPC processor are available today to selected customers. Suggested retail pricing for the MPC7447A at 1.42 GHz is $245 (USD) in quantities of 10,000.