ARM610 July 1995
At the heart of the Acorn Risc PC 600 lies a new 33MHz ARM610 microprocessor, designed by Advanced RISC Machines Limited. Like its predecessor, the 30MHz ARM610, this is a 32-bit RISC CPU with a 4KB cache, but it has been further developed into an even higher-performance processor. In addition to the 4KB cache, the processor of the ARM610 includes on the same silicon a write buffer and a Memory Management Unit (MMU), using a 4k page size. These features increase the average execution speed and reduce the memory bandwidth required by the processor. This allows the external memory to support additional processors and Direct Memory Access (DMA) channels with minimal performance loss. The ARM710 has been launched with an 8KB cache, enhanced write buffer, and a memory Translation Look Aside Buffer (TLB) doubled in size. These will be followed by the ARM800 designs. The ARM610 and ARM710 processors are extremely energy-efficient, consuming significantly less power in operation than other CPUs with similar performance. This has benefits in reliability and heat dispersal.
Performance
The new processor gives the Acorn Risc PC exceptional performance, particularly in high-resolution graphics modes (when fitted with VRAM).
The table below shows its performance benchmarks against other Acorn computers and PC competition.
The block diagram shows the layout of the ARM610:
