This paper presents the new CoolRisc (tm) low-power, high-performance microcontroller architecture designed at CSEM, IC Design witin the Mentor Graphics environment. Three 8-bit cores based on this architecture have been developed. The main goal during the design of the architecture has been to maintain power consumption as low as possible, thus resulting in a very good speed versus power dissipation ratio. The architecture also integrates original features such as support for hierarchical memories, variable frequency modes and multiprocessor operation. The microcontroller core can be compiled in any technology supported by CSEM's CoolChips (R) low-power standard cell library, and can work below one volt with certain technolgies.

Bio:
Vincent Rikkink received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Twente, The Netherlands in 1988. In 1989, he joined Phillips Oscilloscopes where he was involved in the development of high-speed data acquisition and processing integrated circuits. Since 1991, Vincent has worked at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchatel, Switzerland, where he has been responsible for the design automation group. Recently, he became head of the IP and cell-based design sector.