Revision 1.23 - Sept 21, 2006
Preliminary Data Sheet
PowerPC 440 Processor Core
The PowerPC 440 processor core is designed for high-end applications such as RAID controllers, SAN, ISCSI,
routers, switches, printers, set-top boxes, and so on. It is the first processor core to implement the Book E
PowerPC embedded architecture and uses the 128-bit version of IBM’s on-chip CoreConnect Bus Architecture.
Features include:
• Up to 800 MHz operation
• PowerPC Book E architecture
• 32KB I-cache, 32KB D-cache
– parity on data and tag address - Checking of parity with error injection
• Three logical regions in D-cache: Locked, Transient, and Normal
• D-cache full-line flush capability
• 41-bit virtual address, 36-bit (64GB) physical address
• Superscalar, out-of-order execution
• Seven-stage pipeline
• Three execution pipelines
• Dynamic branch prediction
• Memory management unit
– 64-entry, full associative, unified TLB with parity
– Separate instruction and data micro-TLBs
– Storage attributes for write-through, cache-inhibited, guarded, and big or little endian
• Debug facilities
– Multiple instruction and data range breakpoints
– Data value compare
– Single step, branch, and trap events
– Non-invasive real-time trace interface
• 24 DSP instructions
– Single cycle multiply and multiply-accumulate
– 32 x 32 integer multiply
Internal Buses
The PowerPC 440SPe features three IBM standard on-chip buses: the Processor Local Bus (PLB), the On-Chip
Peripheral Bus (OPB), and the Device Control Register Bus (DCR). The high performance, high bandwidth cores
such as the PowerPC 440 processor core, the DDR SDRAM memory controller, the PCI Express and the DDR
PCI-X bridges connect to the PLB. The OPB hosts lower data rate peripherals. The daisy-chained DCR provides a
lower bandwidth path for passing status and control information between the processor core and the other on-chip
cores.
The PLB has a Crossbar arbiter that supports data transfer between the PLB master and two slave segments
identified as the Low Latency (LL) and High Bandwidth (HB) segments. The LL segment allows PLB masters CPU
and I2O, that are adversely affected by latency, to communicate with slave devices with minimal latency. The HB
segment allows PLB masters DMA, XOR, PCI and PCI Express to exchange large blocks of data with SDRAM,
PCI and PCI Express without interfering with the low latency PLB masters.
Bus features include:
• PLB
– 128-bit implementation of the PLB architecture
– Separate and simultaneous read and write data paths
– 64-bit address
– Simultaneous control, address, and data phases
– Four levels of pipelining
– Byte enable capability supporting unaligned transfers
– 32- and 64-byte burst transfers
AMCC Proprietary
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AMCC [ APPLIED MICRO CIRCUITS CORPORATION ]
