The processor calculates its current workload so that it can reject tasks that would overload it. When running, each thread has full access to all of the execution units in the core to improve support for time-critical broadband processing functions, said Yossaie. We are not just depending on multithreading for performance. We have a very strong architecture. Metagence has designed Meta to scale in terms of execution units, such as multiply-accumulate engines, and there will be a level of configurability that licensees can use.
Licensees can have special instructions.
It's a formal architecture. Metagence will sell the Meta cores using a standard licence fee plus royalty model. Compilers, assemblers and linkers are being developed by the company's Ensigma division but Imagination is also talking to third-party tools suppliers. The core will be made available in both soft and hard forms. The Metagence division has 30 people in it and Imagination is still recruiting for the division as well as Imagination.