[unwind]

This is really cool.

The article is pretty light on the technical details about the actual processor architecture.

I think their choice of naming is unfortunate, confusion with ARM's Cortex-M3 is quite likely. Or are you supposed to pronounce this "M to the third" or something?

Update: D'oh, of course it's "M-cubed". I knew that, I blame not being a native speaker for not thinking about it. :)

[xgbi]

Processor description is here: http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~mgseok/pdfs/phoenix_isscc_dac_de...

I'm not sure it's an ARM..

[unwind]

Thanks! No, it's definitely not ARM, that was my point.

It seems to consist of "8-bit CPU, a 52x40-bit DMEM, a 64x10-bit IMEM, a 64x10-bit IROM". Those are some seriously small memory sizes, a total of 64 instructions (the IROM holds the code) really isn't a lot to play with.

[ansible]

Yes.

Though if the silicon process technology is as good as they claim, then scaling that up a little bit (to be on-par with conventional 8-bit micros) won't be too bad. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain the kind of leakage they're talking about with a smaller process size.

[saticmotion]

I think you might be able to find more details on Blaauw's website[0]. I've also found a page with their publications[1]

[0]http://blaauw.eecs.umich.edu/project.php

[1]http://blaauw.eecs.umich.edu/resource.php?grp=1

[walterbell]

From that list, a 2013 overview of the platform (pdf): http://blaauw.eecs.umich.edu/getFile.php?id=498

AnnArbor SmartZone funding, http://www.a2gov.org/departments/finance-admin-services/smar...

U of M test track for smart/autonomous cars, http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/univer...

[Quanticles]

They usually pronounce it "M-cubed", which is also unfortunate because the university started some sort of research program (also called "M-cubed") a while after that name got engrained

[rhinoceraptor]

It probably doesn't help that Ann Arbor is called A^2.

[13]

I didn't even consider that this might not be ARM. There's Cortex M0, M1, M3, M4 you'd be silly to call a product M^3 if it wasn't related. If not it would be lawsuit fodder because it certainly sounds too related to be coincidental.

[giodamelio]

I would go with "M cubed"