Imagination Releases Its First Real-Time Embedded RISC-V CPU: IMG RTXM-2200

June 27, 2022

News

Imagination Technologies' first real-time embedded RISC-V CPU, IMG RTXM-2200, is a highly scalable, feature-rich, 32-bit embedded solution with a flexible design for a wide range of high-volume devices. The IMG RTXM-2200 is a commercial core in Imagination's Catapult CPU family, which was previously announced in December 2021.

Imagination's IMG RTXM-2200 can be integrated into complex SoCs for a variety of applications such as networking solutions, packet management, storage controllers, and sensor management for AI cameras and smart metering, accelerating the expansion of its RISC-V offering. Imagination's new CPU cores, in conjunction with its market-leading GPU and AI accelerator IP, provide customers with access to innovative heterogeneous solutions.

This real-time embedded core has up to 128KB of tightly coupled memories (both instruction and data) for deterministic response and up to 128KB of Level 1 cache for robust performance. The new CPU supports a variety of floating-point formats, such as single-precision and bfloat16. The latter enables manufacturers to deploy AI applications via this core without the need for a separate chip. This decreases silicon area, resulting in a more cost-effective and optimized design for AI cameras and smart metering applications.

The new CPU is supported by the rapidly expanding open-standard RISC-V ecosystem, which continues to shake up the embedded CPU industry through compute democratization, unlocking innovative and open technological development for companies at all levels.

Software

At launch, Imagination real-time embedded cores include a fully functional software SDK and tools package. They work on multiple platforms out of the box to help develop and support the RISC-V ecosystem.

The Catapult Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a modern, cutting-edge IDE based on Visual Studio code that provides a more familiar environment for modern developers and designers.

According to Imagination, the IDE:

• runs on Windows, Ubuntu, CentOS, and macOS
• offers full Linux support (including reference bootloaders, kernel, and filesystem)
• is compatible with gem5 software, unlocking simulation environments for enhanced power and energy-efficiency testing

Chris Porthouse, Chief Product Officer, Imagination, says: “We are excited to announce IMG RTXM-2200, our first real-time RISC-V CPU, which underpins our continued commitment to driving growth for the RISC-V ecosystem. Imagination now has a unique and broad portfolio of compute IP, including GPU, AI accelerators, and now CPU, designed for this innovative architecture.”

For more information, visit imaginationtech.com.