MT mediaLibTM for Chip MultiThreaded (CMT) Processors

Innovation in processor design tends to happen in waves. The introduction of the first 4-bit/8-bit microprocessor designs (the 4004/8008) by Intel in 1971/1972 triggered a wave of competing designs from other semiconductor companies, including Motorola, Zilog, MOS Technology, TI, Rockwell, RCA, Fairchild, and others. The SPARC® architecture was part of a wave of RISC processor designs that appeared between 1985-92, and included such famous (and not-so-famous) lines as MIPS, PA-RISC, Clipper, ROMP, 29000, 88000, i860, Alpha, and POWER. Even Intel’s massive and prolonged Itanium project was just one aspect of a wave of VLIW-style designs that crested in the 1990s, also encompassed Transmeta’s x86compatible low power Crusoe line, and succeeded in deluging the embedded space with a plethora of colorfully named media and signal processors like TriMedia, Mpact, Carmel, ManArray, MAP, StarCore, TigerSharc, Jazz, and Crescendo.