A 330 MHz 4-way superscalar microprocessor

Abstract

This is a second-generation, highly-integrated superscalar processor implementing the Sparc V9 64b architecture. Performance is improved by increasing clock frequency and by improvements in the memory system. Clock rates up to 330 MHz are achieved. Microarchitecture improvements include a pre-fetch instruction, multiple outstanding block loads and stores, and support for a wide range of cache sizes and system frequencies. These result in improved computation, multimedia, and networking performance. This design is implemented on a 5-metal-layer, 0.35 /spl mu/m process.