AMULET is a series of microprocessors implementing the
ARM processor architecture. Developed by the ''Advanced Processor Technologies'' group at the
Department of Computer Science at the
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...
(formerly the AMULET and PAL groups based at the same institution), AMULET is unique amongst ARM implementations in being an
asynchronous microprocessor, not making use of a
square wave
A square wave is a non-sinusoidal periodic waveform in which the amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimum and maximum values, with the same duration at minimum and maximum. In an ideal square wave, the transitions b ...
clock signal
In electronics and especially synchronous digital circuits, a clock signal (historically also known as ''logic beat'') oscillates between a high and a low state and is used like a metronome to coordinate actions of digital circuits.
A clock si ...
for data synchronization and movement.
List of AMULET microprocessors
*AMULET1 — Designed in 1990 and first fabricated in 1993. Its estimated performance is approximately 70% of that of a comparably-sized synchronous ARM6 running at 20 MHz.
*AMULET2 — A re-implementation of AMULET1 first fabricated in 1996. Features on-chip memory that can be used either as processor cache or mapped RAM. The APT group estimates AMULET2 to have a similar power dissipation/performance ratio as ARM8. One very notable feature due to the asynchronous design is the drop of power dissipation to 3 μW when not in use (assuming the on-board timer, which handles DRAM refresh, is also inactive).
*AMULET3 — This was a redesigned architecture aiming at higher performance than the previous AMULET processors whilst retaining low power dissipation. Fabricated in 2000, it supported the ARM level 4 instruction set compatibility, alongside support for Thumb mode (i.e. ARM9TM). Performance and power dissipation were approximately the same as an ARM9 fabricated on the same technology. AMULET3 was employed in a commercial prototype
DECT
Digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (Digital European cordless telecommunications), usually known by the acronym DECT, is a standard primarily used for creating cordless telephone systems. It originated in Europe, where it is the common ...
device because of its inherent low
electromagnetic interference
Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrost ...
characteristics. This did not go into manufacture for non-technical reasons.
The Advanced Processor Technologies Group
. Intranet.cs.man.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2013-06-14.
See also
*ARM Architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
References
External links
ARM Ltd.APT Group
ARM processors
Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester
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