The ARM VFP10 is a hard macrocell Vector Floating Point (VFP) coprocessor compatible with all of the ARM10E ^TM  family of CPU cores. It supports both single and double precision floating point; giving full IEEE754 compliance with ARM support software, or near IEEE754 compliance with hardware only. The support code has two components, a library of routines which perform unimplemented functions (such as transcendental functions) and some supported functions (such as division); and a set of exception handlers for processing exception conditions.

VFP10 Features

• ISA is ARM VFPv2
• 16 double precision or 32 single precision registers
• Large independent register file with 64-bit LD/ST interface
• Full IEEE754 compliance with ARM support code
• Run-Fast mode for near IEEE754 compliance (hardware only)
• Binary compatible with VFP9 and VFP11
• Scalar and vector operation support (ideal for FP DSP)
• Parallel LD/ST, FMAC, and DIV/SQRT execution engines
• 2.0Mflops/MHz
• Area ~1.16mm ² TSMC 0.13µm LV
• Up to 325MHz (worst case) TSMC 0.13µm LV
• <0.4mW/MHz (typical) power consumption on TSMC 0.13µm LV

VFP10 Instruction Set (VFPv2)

• Arithmetic:
  • Add, Sub, Mult, Neg-Mult, Negate, Abs Value, Compare, Div, Square Root
• FMAC (Single and double versions):
  • Multiply-Add, Multiply-Subtract, Neg-Multiply-Add, Neg-Multiply-Subtract
• Type conversions
• Load/Store scalars and vectors, 64-bits per cycle

VFP10 Benefits

The vector processing capability of the ARM VFP10 offers increased performance for floating point arithmetic used in automotive powertrain and body control applications, imaging applications such as scaling, transforms, and font generation in printing, 3D transforms, FFT, and filtering in graphics.  The next generation of consumer products such as Internet appliances, set-top boxes and home gateways can directly benefit from the ARM VFP10.

Many applications inherently benefit from the dynamic range and precision of floating point. Many applications are migrating to embedded applications and these have been floating point based for many years.  The inclusion of VFP10 will enable a more simple transition to the embedded world using technical computing tools like MatLab or MATRIxx.

VFP10 Applications

• Automotive control applications
  • Powertrain
  • ABS
  • Traction control & active suspension
• Digital consumer products
  • Set-top boxes, games consoles
• 3D Graphics
  • FFT & FIR Filtering
• Imaging
  • Laser printers, still digital cameras, digital video cameras
• Industrial control systems
  • Motion controls

Many real-time control applications in the industrial and automotive fields benefit from the dynamic range and precision of floating-point offered by the ARM VFP10.  Automotive powertrain, anti-lock braking, traction control, and active suspension systems are all mission-critical applications where precision and predictability are essential requirements.
Incorporating the VFP10 into a SoC design can give faster development and more reliable performance, as technical computing tools (MatLab, MATRIxx, etc.) can be used to directly model the system and derive the application code — ensuring that the behaviour of the system design is more precise, reliable, and predictable.

The VFP10 will then need to be placed in the SoC layout as near as possible to the coprocessor interface of the ARM10E  core. This is to keep wire lengths as short as possible and to minmise delay paths to the VFP10.