Auriga2: a 4.7 million-transistor CISC microprocessor

With the introduction of the high range version of the DPS7000 mainframe family, Bull is providing a processor which integrates the DPS7000 CPU and first level of cache on one VLSI chip containing 4.7M transistors and using a 0.5 pm, 3Mlayers CMOS technology. This enhanced CPU has been designed to provide a high integration, high performance and low cost systems. Up to 24 such processors can be integrated in a single system, enabling performance levels in the range of 850 TPC-A (Oracle) with about 12 000 simultaneously active connections. The design methodology involved massive use of formal verification and symbolic layout techniques, enabling to reach first pass right silicon on several foundries. An architectural overview of the CPU with emphasis on several original aspects of the design aspects (synthesis, verification, symbolic layout) are discussed in this paper.