Boston Circuits Technology, Grid on Chip, Time Machine, gCORE Processor, GridWare Software

Boston Circuits delivers complete multi-core processor solutions for manufacturers of home and business multimedia devices. The gCORE family of processors are the world’s first intelligent multi-core processors. Traditional multi-core processors rely on software to allocate processing resources, creating overhead which reduces performance, while increasing the complexity of the software. Boston Circuits’ gCORE processors incorporate an intelligent Time Machine module, which dynamically assigns process tasks to the multiple cores on the chip. This greatly simplifies the development of multi-core software, dynamically reduces power consumption, while producing significant performance enhancements.

With its unique "Grid on Chip" architecture, the gCORE family can scale from a couple to hundreds of 32-bit RISC processor cores on a single chip. The high end of the family will provide the necessary performance to allow customers to replace dedicated hardware with software modules running on the gCORE; simplifying system architectures, and improving product development efficiency.

The gCORE processors are supported by the GridWare software tools and libraries. GridWare allows standard multi-threaded Linux applications to run on the gCORE "as is", providing a seamless migration path to multi-core embedded processing.

Click on the links on the left to learn more about these technologies and products. Together, these technologies enable the next revolution in embedded processors.

At Boston Circuits we believe that a processor must have the needs of software developers in mind first and foremost. The Company’s patent pending Time Machine technology greatly simplifies the development of multi-thread, multi-core software. At the same time, it is compatible with existing software applications that run on Linux.

A processor platform must be scalable to support multiple generations of products. Scalability must exist not only in hardware, but also in software. Boston Circuits’ gCORE processors delivers both; the Time Machine allows applications to be decoupled from individual processor cores allowing software compatibility regardless of the number of processor cores. The Grid on Chip architecture is designed to scale to hundreds of cores in the future. Scalability is an important component in the Company’s concept of sustainable computing.

To lower power consumption and extend product life, it is necessary to power on on-chip resources as they are needed. The Time Machine provides resources on demand, in real time, reducing both active and standby power over the entire spectrum of usage scenarios.

High efficiency computing means delivering the maximum performance for the least amount of power and silicon area. Boston Circuits has approached processing efficiency with the intelligent Time Machine, which reduces the management overhead associated with multi-thread multi-core systems, and the Grid on Chip architecture which provides ample bandwidth for the multiple processor cores to communicate.

Many embedded devices require realtime response to events to handle applications such as video processing. The Time Machine provides deterministic real time response to events and requests, making it ideal for multi-media and communications applications.