ARM710
July 1995
At the heart of the Acorn Risc PC 700 lies a new 40MHz ARM710 microprocessor, designed by Advanced RISC Machines Limited. Like the 30MHz ARM610 used in the Risc PC 600, this is a 32-bit RISC CPU, further developed into even higher-performance processor to take Acorn computers into the next century. In addition to the 8KB cache, the processor of the ARM710 includes on the same silicon an enhanced write buffer and a Memory Management Unit (MMU), with a memory Translation Look Aside Buffer (TLB) twice the size of the ARM610. 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. ARM Ltd continues to develop ARM800 designs. The ARM710 processor is 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 even more 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 ARM710:
