The Rise mP6 was a superpipelined and

superscalar A superscalar processor is a CPU that implements a form of parallelism called instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. In contrast to a scalar processor, which can execute at most one single instruction per clock cycle, a sup ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

Rise Technology Rise Technology was a short lived microprocessor manufacturer that produced the Intel x86 MMX compatible mP6 processor. The mP6 was a microprocessor that was designed to perform a smaller number of types of computer instructions so that it can ...

to compete with the

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and P ...

line.

History

had spent 5 years developing a x86 compatible

, and finally introduced it in November 1998 as a low-cost, low-power alternative for the

Super Socket 7 Super Socket 7, also referred to as Super 7, is a hardware-level extension of the Socket 7 ZIF socket specification for x86 processors. Compatible motherboards and chipsets use a standard Socket 7 connection for the CPU, while adding certain feat ...

platform, that allowed for higher

Front-side bus A front-side bus (FSB) is a computer communication interface (bus) that was often used in Intel-chip-based computers during the 1990s and 2000s. The EV6 bus served the same function for competing AMD CPUs. Both typically carry data between the ...

speeds than the previous

Socket 7 Socket 7 is a physical and electrical specification for an x86-style CPU socket on a personal computer motherboard. It was released in June 1995. The socket supersedes the earlier Socket 5, and accepts P5 Pentium microprocessors manufactured by ...

and that made it possible for other CPU manufacturers to keep competing against

, that had moved to the Slot 1 platform.

Design

The mP6 made use of the

MMX MMX may refer to: * 2010, in Roman numerals Science and technology * MMX (instruction set), a single-instruction, multiple-data instruction set designed by Intel * MMX Mineração, a Brazilian mining company * Martian Moons eXploration, a Japane ...

instruction set and had three MMX pipelines which allowed the CPU to execute up to three MMX instructions in a single cycle. Its three integer units made it possible to execute three integer instructions in a single cycle as well and the fully pipelined floating point unit could execute up to two floating-point instructions per cycle. To further improve the performance the core utilized

branch prediction In computer architecture, a branch predictor is a digital circuit that tries to guess which way a branch (e.g., an if–then–else structure) will go before this is known definitively. The purpose of the branch predictor is to improve the flow ...

and a number of techniques to resolve

data dependency A data dependency in computer science is a situation in which a program statement (instruction) refers to the data of a preceding statement. In compiler theory, the technique used to discover data dependencies among statements (or instructions) is c ...

conflicts. According to Rise, the mP6 should perform almost as fast as

Intel Pentium II The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture (" P6") and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors (27.4 million in the case of the mobile Dixon with 256 KB L ...

at the same frequencies.

Performance

Despite its innovative features, the real-life performance of the mP6 proved disappointing. This was mainly due to the small

L1 Cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, whic ...

. Another reason was that the Rise mP6's PR 266 rating was based upon the old Intel Pentium MMX, while its main competitors were the Intel Celeron 266, the IDT WinChip 2-266 and the AMD K6-2 266, that all delivered more performance in most benchmarks and applications. The Celeron and the K6-2 actually worked at 266 MHz, and the WinChip 2's PR rating was based upon the performance of its AMD opponent.

Use

Announced in 1998, the chip never achieved widespread use, and Rise quietly exited the market in December of the following year. Like competitors

Cyrix Cyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas, as a specialist supplier of floating point units for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by Tom Brightman and Jerry Rogers. In ...

and IDT, Rise found it was unable to compete with

and AMD.

Legacy

Silicon Integrated Systems Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS; ) is a company that manufactures, among other things, motherboard chipsets. The company was founded in 1987 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. Business In the late 1990s, SiS made the decision to invest in their ow ...

(SiS) licensed the mP6 technology, and used it in the SiS 550, a

system-on-a-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...

(SoC) that integrated the mP6 CPU, the north and south bridges, and sound and video on a single chip. The SiS 550 saw use in some compact PCs and in consumer devices, such as DVD players. The SiS 551 chip was also marketed by DM&P as

Vortex86 The Vortex86 is a computing system-on-a-chip (SoC) based on a core compatible with the x86 microprocessor family. It is produced by DM&P Electronics, but originated with Rise Technology. History Vortex86 previously belonged to SiS, which got ...

(M6127D). Later DM&P took over mP6 design from SiS and continues development under

SoC product line. DM&P further signed an agreement with Xcore to allow them to rebrand the chip as Xcore86.Xcore Corporation Ltd. has entered into an agreement with DMP Electronics Inc.

mP6 data

References

{{reflist

External links

CPU-INFO: Rise MP6, indepth processor history

The Rise of the Vortex86: Embedded x86 Processors
Superscalar microprocessors

Rise Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...