RMI Corporation
Encyclopedia
RMI Corporation, also known as RMI, formerly known as Raza Microelectronics, Inc., is a privately held Fabless semiconductor company
headquartered in Cupertino, California
, which specializes in designing System-on-a-chip
processors for networking and consumer media applications.
, which was acquired by AMD in 1996. Atiq Raza was AMD's President and Chief Operating Officer in the late 1990s after the NexGen acquisition. Behrooz Abdi became president and CEO of RMI in November 2007. RMI changed its name from Raza Microelectronics, Inc. to RMI Corporation in December 2007. RMI is not affiliated with Foundries Holdings, LLC, formerly known as Raza Foundries, Inc.
RMI internally developed three main product lines (XLR/XLS and Orion) and purchased a fourth from AMD in 2006 (Alchemy). In 2008, RMI merged with Netlogic Microsystems.
RMI processors are used in a number of router, firewall
, and switch
products sold by other networking equipment vendors, and consumer electronics manufacturers.
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
headquartered in Cupertino, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, which specializes in designing System-on-a-chip
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
processors for networking and consumer media applications.
History
RMI was founded in 2002 by Atiq Raza, who had previously founded NexGenNexGen
NexGen was a private semiconductor company that designed x86 microprocessors until it was purchased by AMD in 1996.Like competitor Cyrix, NexGen was a fabless design house that designed its chips but relied on other companies for production...
, which was acquired by AMD in 1996. Atiq Raza was AMD's President and Chief Operating Officer in the late 1990s after the NexGen acquisition. Behrooz Abdi became president and CEO of RMI in November 2007. RMI changed its name from Raza Microelectronics, Inc. to RMI Corporation in December 2007. RMI is not affiliated with Foundries Holdings, LLC, formerly known as Raza Foundries, Inc.
RMI internally developed three main product lines (XLR/XLS and Orion) and purchased a fourth from AMD in 2006 (Alchemy). In 2008, RMI merged with Netlogic Microsystems.
Product lines
RMI produces four key product lines:- XLR - A multicoreMulticoreMulticore may refer to:* Multi-core processor ** Multicore Association, founded in 2005, a non-profit, industry consortium focused on multicore technology* multicore cable, a generic term for an electrical cable that has multiple cores...
, multithreading CPU used for network processing. XLR chips have 2 to 8 MIPSMIPS architectureMIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
CPU cores, which have each been extended to support 4 hardware threads. XLR processors include HyperTransportHyperTransportHyperTransport , formerly known as Lightning Data Transport , is a technology for interconnection of computer processors. It is a bidirectional serial/parallel high-bandwidth, low-latency point-to-point link that was introduced on April 2, 2001...
, PCI-XPCI-XPCI-X, short for PCI-eXtended, is a computer bus and expansion card standard that enhances the 32-bit PCI Local Bus for higher bandwidth demanded by servers. It is a double-wide version of PCI, running at up to four times the clock speed, but is otherwise similar in electrical implementation and...
, Gigabit EthernetGigabit EthernetGigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second , as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. It came into use beginning in 1999, gradually supplanting Fast Ethernet in wired local networks where it performed...
, IEEE754 and MIPS-compliant floating point unit per core and optionally 10 Gigabit Ethernet10 Gigabit EthernetThe 10 gigabit Ethernet computer networking standard was first published in 2002. It defines a version of Ethernet with a nominal data rate of 10 Gbit/s , ten times faster than gigabit Ethernet.10 gigabit Ethernet defines only full duplex point to point links which are generally connected by...
interconnects built in to the CPU. - XLS - A smaller, lower cost multicore multithreading MIPS based CPU used for network processing. The XLS family has options with 1 or 2 CPU cores, each with 4 hardware threads; 2 to 8 gigabit Ethernet interfaces; USB interfaces; and 1 or 2 PCI-E interfaces.
- AlchemyAlchemy (processor)The Alchemy microprocessor is a low power processor family that uses MIPS architecture. The Alchemy family was used by AMD, Raza Microelectronics and Sun Microsystems in its embedded products such as Network processors....
- Originally developed by Alchemy Semiconductor, which was then purchased by AMD, this CPU product line was purchased by RMI in 2006. The Alchemy processor is a low-power MIPS architectureMIPS architectureMIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
System-on-a-chipSystem-on-a-chipA system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
with integrated graphics and signal processing, designed for media players and portable video devices. - Orion - a network interface chip used to translate Gigabit EthernetGigabit EthernetGigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second , as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. It came into use beginning in 1999, gradually supplanting Fast Ethernet in wired local networks where it performed...
data traffic to SONETSynchronous optical networkingSynchronous Optical Networking and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy are standardized multiplexing protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes . At low transmission rates data can also be transferred via an...
OC-48Optical CarrierOptical Carrier transmission rates are a standardized set of specifications of transmission bandwidth for digital signals that can be carried on Synchronous Optical Networking fiber optic networks...
network links and back again, to interface local area networks with wide area network circuits.
RMI processors are used in a number of router, firewall
Firewall (computing)
A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....
, and switch
Switch
In electronics, a switch is an electrical component that can break an electrical circuit, interrupting the current or diverting it from one conductor to another....
products sold by other networking equipment vendors, and consumer electronics manufacturers.