Imagination reports MIPS Warrior P-class CPU at the heart of new communications processor from Baikal Electronics

Baikal-T1 processor targets telecommunications, industrial automation and embedded systems with high-performance, efficient MIPS CPU

LONDON, UK – May 27, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) reports that a new multi-core processor from its customer Baikal Electronics, a Russian fabless IC company, integrates Imagination’s latest MIPS Warrior P-class P5600 CPU. Baikal created the Baikal-T1 with a focus on versatility, high operating frequency and low power consumption to allow its customers to build leading-edge and efficient solutions for telecommunications, industrial automation and embedded systems applications.

Commenting the Baikal-T1, Grigoriy Khrenov, CTO, Baikal Electronics, notes: “We are glad to present the world’s first publicly announced implementation of the latest MIPS Warrior P5600 CPU. With the P5600 we created a high-performance, highly efficient communications SoC with a wide range of modern high-speed interfaces. Another valuable feature is the possibility to design passive cooling solutions. The technical specifications of the Baikal-T1 enable our clients to develop highly competitive products targeting various markets including wireless routers and home gateways.”

Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing, Imagination, says: “We are delighted that Baikal is bringing this new processor to market based on our latest MIPS Warrior P5600 CPU. This is one of many recent milestones for MIPS that show that Imagination is bringing MIPS back in a big way. MIPS CPUs offer an unparalleled range of features and performance points, and innovative companies like Baikal are taking advantage of these benefits to create differentiated designs.”

Baikal selected the MIPS CPU because of its balance of high-performance processing with small silicon area and excellent low power credentials.

Svetlana Legostaeva, CEO, Baikal Electronics, says: “The widely used MIPS architecture enables the Baikal-T1 to take its place in a vast environment that has been developing for more than 30 years and has a great growing opportunity for communications solutions in Russian and global markets. Our new MIPS-based communications processor, with its versatility, high-performance and energy efficiency, will rival the industry’s most advanced 32-bit communications chips. Commercial solutions based on the Baikal-T1 are expected in the market at the end of 2015.”

The MIPS P5600 CPU is based on a wide issue, deeply out-of-order (OoO) implementation of the MIPS32 architecture, supporting up to six cores in a single cluster with high performance cache coherency. It achieves the industry’s leading CoreMark/MHz score per core for licensable CPU IP. The OmniShield-ready P5600 also integrates hardware virtualization for increased security and reliability, and 128-bit SIMD support for high performance on data parallel operations such as DSP, imaging and media.

Engineering samples of Baikal-T1 are available to developers now from Baikal. The SoC comes with a set of extensible software based on open source code.

About Baikal Electronics

Baikal Electronics is a fabless semiconductor company that develops and markets high-performance multi-core processors and systems-on-chips (SoCs). The Baikal product line of multicore processors includes energy-efficient solutions for desktops and industrial computers with various levels of performance and functionality. Check the company’s web-site for up-to-date information at www.baikalelectronics.ru.

About Imagination Technologies

Imagination is a global technology leader whose products touch the lives of billions of people across the globe. The company’s broad range of silicon IP (intellectual property) includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems on Chips) that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its unique software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers to get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world’s most iconic products. See: www.imgtec.com.