Since the invention of the first CPU chip in 1971, there has been continuous innovation in the area of microprocessor design as semiconductor technology advanced.  The key themes in microprocessor today are high performance under low power, parallel computing on multiple threads, multimedia support and ease of program creation.  The fusion of CPU and GPU into one unified processor is a key approach for delivering unprecedented cost performance in satisfying these market demands.

Peking University is among the top research institutions in China.  ICube is a privately-held, fabless semiconductor start-up located in Shenzhen.  This partnership between the two organizations will leverage each other’s strengths in pursuing this market-focused research project.

Mr. Fei brings rich experience in the embedded processor market to ICube. He joins ICube from MIPS Technologies, where he was Marketing Director for the China region. Prior to MIPS, he has served as Senior Technical Marketing and Sales Manager at ARM Holdings, plc for eight years. With more than 10 years’ experience working in top tier processor companies, Felix will greating enhance ICube’s efforts in marketing its technology and products.

ICube Corp., a leading processor design company in China, today announced that it has been selected by SZSTI (Shenzhen Science & Technology Innovation Commission) to play a leading role in the research project “Indigenous-Processor-Based SoC Design”.

Processor is at the heart of all modern digital devices. China has been conducting research and development on CPUs for many years and has achieved good results on many fronts. However, China still needs innovative breakthroughs in order to catapult it to the forefront, and to lead in this field rather than follow the mainstream players worldwide.  Each year, Chinese processor companies are forced to pay a huge amount of license fees and royalties to foreign companies in order to manufacture and sell CPU chips containing foreign IP contents.

China’s domestic processor industry has longed for a truly indigenous and leading-edge processor architecture for many years. China’s government has also been sponsoring researches in the area of processor designs. As a leading processor company founded and located in China, ICube has developed what it believes to be the first ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) truly indigenous to China.  This ISA, called MVP (Multi-threaded Virtual Pipeline), has been designed to implement ICube’s highly innovative UPU style of processor design.

ICube was founded in 2009, initially with funding from private sources. In the three years since its founding,  the company has successfully produced its own architecture, its own processor cores, its own SoCs and its own evaluation system boards.  Apart from hardware, ICbe also has its own compiler team responsible for developing the tool chain support for MVP.  ICube’s software team has also ported linux, Android and some popular multimedia applications to MVP.  The company plans to leverage this support from the local government to accelerate its technology and product development moving forward.

Mr. Liu joined ICube from C2 Microsystems, where he was VP of Software and Applications. Before C2, he has served in engineering management in various well-known companies.  He was VP of Applications Engineering at Magnum Semiconductor, VP of Software Engineering for MediaTek in China and CrystalMedia, a subsidiary of MediaTek in USA, and VP of Software Development at Tvia Inc.  Mr. Liu has also held leading software engineering positions at Micronics Computers and Oak technologies.

Mr. Liu holds the BSEE degree from Hefei University of Technology, and the MSEE degree from Wichita State University. He was a Ph.D candidate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

MVP is a UPU (Unified Processing Unit) that combines traditional CPU and GPU functions by integrating them into one processor pipeline. Relative to the common practice of merging separate CPU and GPU modules via on-chip buses, the UPU approach exhibits significant advantages in hardware resource utilization, power savings and reduced manufacturing cost without sacrificing performance.

MVP is the ideal choice for performance-critical and graphics-intensive applications. Vehicle infotainment is among the fastest growing markets in China, requiring more and more graphics performance not only for satisfying the requirements of the user interface, but also for 3D mapping applications like those used in navigation. As a UPU-styled processor, MVP is the perfect fit for this market.

For more details about our technology and licensing model, please contact us business@icubecorp.com.

ICube’s engineers and management presented the visitors with an introduction to ICube’s UPU technology featuring the MVP, a domestically developed Chinese core processor, and also discussed the developments of the IC1, ICube’s first MVP-based product.

The visitors from the CHI program expressed their admiration that ICube was able to develop the MVP independently. ICube’s mission was well received by the visiting experts, confirming the significance of the Intellectual Property position of the company and affirming that ICube’s propriety UPU technology, that features the MVP core integrating a CPU and GPU in one Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), is a great innovation. The meeting also lead to several discussions and proposals covering the areas of efficiency, power and other factors of the MVP and IC1 development.

Finally, the honored visitors expressed their eagerness to follow ICube’s team in bringing the MVP, a true Chinese Core, based IC1 solution to the market.

The Harmony Unified Processor Technology marks a milestone in the semiconductor industry by genuinely integrating two different processor types: a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU), into one unified core. This technology consists of the Multi-Thread Virtual Pipeline parallel computing core, an independent instruction set architecture (ISA), an optimizing compiler and the Agile Switch dynamic load balancer. It brings the most cost efficient and power efficient performance to the mobile computing and mobile communication markets.

To date, the finished silicon for the Harmony Unified Processor Technology has been produced and is ready for packaging. The resulting chip product is targeted to tap into the booming Android-based tablet computer market. Volume shipping is expected by the end of this year.

Existing processors in the market today are all based on decades-old designs, which limit their readiness to take advantage of the latest advancements in semiconductor technology. The Harmony Unified Processor Technology sets a new industry standard of performance by processing up to four threads (tasks) in each core. This contrasts with existing cores in the market that are limited to a single thread per core. This additional parallelism will bring significant performance benefits to mobile computing, thereby providing a desirable solution to Android-based tablet computer manufacturers.

Mr. Simon Moy, Chief Technical Officer of ICube, concluded, “Developing our own Intellectual Property (IP) from the ground up has been a key differentiation of ICube from other technology companies in China. This provides us with much greater areas for innovation, enables us to leverage the latest semiconductor trends and lowers the cost of our system-on-a-chip (SOC) products relative to other chipmakers. We are also proud to have attracted and built a world-class development team composed of by Silicon Valley veterans and top engineering talents in China. We are confident that our revolutionary high technology product will be well received by the market and create value to our shareholders.”

ICube’s IC1 contains 2 MVP cores that provide high computing power while maintaining a substantial price/performance advantage in the industry for mobile computing and mobile communication devices.

When IC1 is brought to the market place, it will be:

• The first SoC design based on MVP.
• The first chip in the world that combines CPU and GPU into one truly integrated
  core inside.
• The first chip in China with multi-core processors based on parallel computing
  with advanced simultaneously-multi-threading (SMT) design technique.
• The first chip in China based on a domestically developed Instruction Set
  Architecture (ISA) and domestically patented stream processor cores.

Shenzhen, China – January 01 2010 – The fabless semiconductor company ICube Corporation today unveiled a new architecture for high computation performance based on multi-processing and parallel computing. ICube’s Multi-Threaded Virtual Pipeline (MVP) on a scalable and programmable stream processor core is an independently developed “China Core” targeting Android-based devices. The MVP features the versatility of a unified processor combining the capabilities of a CPU, GPU and DSP in one solution for China’s vast consumer electronics market.

ICube will offer MVP-based SOC solutions to devices that require high computing power while maintaining a substantial price/performance advantage in the industry. The MVP’s increased price/performance ratio will make advanced embedded parallel processing CPUs more available in Greater China, while simultaneously narrowing the gap between supply and demand of domestically consumed chips. ICube’s MVP based SOC will be positioned towards the handheld market, the embedded controller market, the medical equipment market and all areas of multi-media applications.

About ICUBE

ICube is a fabless semiconductor company developing advanced streaming processor chips based on independently developed parallel computing architecture. ICube’s mission is to develop a parallel computing platform chip that will create a great technical impact to the IC industry and represent significant commercial value in the consumer electronics market. Founded by Silicon Valley veterans who are experts in processor, software and integrated circuit development, the strength of our engineering team enjoys international distinction. ICube demands excellence on all levels of business and boats a corporate culture that values the balance of Innovation, Initiative and Intellectual Honesty.