New L Series

Technical discussions around xCORE processors (e.g. xcore-200 & xcore.ai).
Redeye
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New L Series

Post by Redeye »

Can anyone shed any light on the new L Series processors announced today? The press release is a bit woolly and the link for more information (www.xmos.com/newlseries) doesn't work. I can't make head or tail of the L-Series lineup it gives, which are old ones renamed and which ones are new.

My questions :

1. Are the existing L1 (48, 64 and 128 pin variants) and L2 124-QFN still going to be available? And will they continue to be so for the foreseeable future?
2. What packages are these new chips in?
3. Pricing?


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Folknology
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Post by Folknology »

Hmm the only thing I can see is this :
XMOS adds new general purpose multicore microcontrollers, grows xCORE family to more than 50 products
microcontrollers, the L Series. The company is adding 6-, 10- and 12-core variants, plus new memory size options, to ... their code using an easy-to-use suite of development tools. The new L-Series multicore ... (Press Releases, XCore, XS1, XS1-L) Press release announcing new members of the xCORE L-Series of ...
Which is here but even when logged in I can't actually access the document

Xmos can we get access to the announcement, is there any info available for us?

regards
Al
Redeye
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Post by Redeye »

Yep, I've read the press release several times and it confuses me more each time.

To be honest the new processors don't look very exciting (to me at least), but what I am concerned about is whether the existing L1 and L2 variants are all surviving as I've got boards I'm about to order with the L1-128 and I want to make sure they're not going obsolete before I carry on. Also there's no mention of the L2-124QFN which I'm also using, which is a worry.

What I'm looking for is :

Old L1 & L2 processors - Which ones are being discontinued, New names vs. Old names
New processors - Names, packages, prices.
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Folknology
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Post by Folknology »

I can't see the release can you send it (or the text) to me so I can have a look?

Likewise I would like to know if any of the existing chips are being replaced/discontinued

regards
Al
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Bianco
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Post by Bianco »

There are no processors discontinued, just new branding and *kuch* diversification.

The XS1-L8-64 and XS1-L16-128 are available now (alternatively designated L1 and L2 respectively)
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Folknology
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Post by Folknology »

Ok found it http://www.xmos.com/news/22-jan-2013/xm ... ly-more-50

(Xmos site search is clearly busted as the original link doesn't work)

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Al
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Folknology
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Post by Folknology »

Here is the relevant link to the new series

And the packages look like drop in for current L1/2 range, these appear to be tweaks on number of logical cores per chip only.

Can someone from Xmos confirm or deny pin compatibility with existing L1/2 range to put our minds at rest or not..

regards
Al
Redeye
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Post by Redeye »

Folknology wrote:Here is the relevant link to the new series
Thanks Al, the table on that page makes a whole lot more sense than the press release did. It'll be interesting to see the pricing. Hopefully the new lower core versions are cheaper than the existing 8/16 core versions that they're based on and they're not going to raise pricing on existing products.
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Folknology
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Post by Folknology »

The brief description is now here in the main XCore site section

(Although it doesn't pull up and links under the resources button yet)

regards
Al
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Post by mikronauts »

Initially I was quite interested to see new Xcore chips.

Then I took a careful look at the tables.

Barring changes that have not been revealed yet (core / io improvements) it seems to me that the "new" chips are just "thread limited" re-spin's of the old ones. I'd love to be wrong about this, so please correct me if I am missing something.

As far as I can see, the table can be summed up as:

cores = memory size / 64KB
threads per core = "logical cores" / cores

where threads per core < 8 some threads just appear to be disabled; and I would not be surprised at all if the limitation is based purely on the processor model number selected in the IDE perhaps enforced by checking a processor-internal fuse/rom setting.

I really hope I am wrong, but if I am right, I am very dissapointed.
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