TILE-Gx explained

TILE-Gx was a VLIW ISA multicore processor family designed by Tilera. It consisted of a mesh network^[6] that was expected to scale up to 100 cores,^[7] but only 72-core variants actually shipped.^[8]

After a few acquisitions, Tilera's designs ended up in the hands of Nvidia, which ended production of TILE-Gx processors in 2022.^[9] In June 2018, the Linux kernel dropped support for this architecture.^[10] Tile-Gx processors were used in MikroTik's CCR1000 series routers, and MikroTik continues to support this architecture out-of-tree in its RouterOS Linux distribution.

Product lineup

Common features of TILE-Gx processors:

• 64-bit VLIW RISC core (3-issue)
• 4 MAC/cycle with SIMD extensions
• L1 cache: 64 KB (32 KB data + 32 KB instruction) per core.
• L2 cache: 256 KB per core.
• L3 cache: Other core's L2 cache connected via mesh network.
• 1, 2, or 4 ECC 72-bit DDR3 controllers.
• Up to 24 PCIe 2.0 lanes.
• Optional built-in crypto accelerator with 40 Gbit/s encryption (small packet) and 20 Gbit/s full-duplex compression, true random number generator, RSA accelerator.
• Fabrication process: TSMC 40nm.

Part	Core Frequency (GHz)	Memory Speed	PCIe Controllers/Lanes	DDR3 Controllers	Network Interfaces XAUI (10 Gb)/SGMII (1 Gb)	TDP	Crypto Engines
TILE-Gx8009			3/10	1	2/12
TLR4-00980CG-10C	1.0	1333 MT/s				9 W
TLR4-00980CG-10CE	1.0	1333 MT/s				10 W
TLR4-00980CG-12C	1.2	1600 MT/s				11 W
TLR4-00980CG-12CE	1.2	1600 MT/s				12 W
TILE-Gx8016			2/12	2	2/12
TLR4-01680CG-10C	1.0	1600 MT/s				15 W
TLR4-01680CG-10CE	1.0	1600 MT/s				15 W
TLR4-01680CG-12C	1.2	1600 MT/s				18 W
TLR4-01680CG-12CE	1.2	1600 MT/s				18 W
TILE-Gx8036			3/16	2	4/16
TLR4-03680CG-10C	1.0	1600 MT/s				20 W
TLR4-03680CG-10CE	1.0	1600 MT/s				22 W
TLR4-03680CG-12C	1.2	1866 MT/s				26 W
TLR4-03680CG-12CE	1.2	1866 MT/s				28 W
TILE-Gx8072			6/24	4	8/32
TLR4-07280CG-10C	1.0	1600 MT/s				? W
TLR4-07280CG-10CE	1.0	1600 MT/s				? W
TLR4-07280CG-12C	1.2	1866 MT/s				? W
TLR4-07280CG-12CE	1.2	1866 MT/s				? W

See also

• TILE64
• TILEPro64

References

• Tilera Corporation Joins China's Wireless TD Forum as a Senior Member . Tilera . 26 October 2009 . 16 June 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110726011931/http://www.tilera.com/about_tilera/press-releases/tilera-corporation-joins-chinas-wireless-td-forum-senior-member . 26 July 2011 .

Notes and References

1. News: Tilera preps many-cored Gx chips for March launch. 21 February 2013. 30 January 2012.
2. Web site: TILE-Gx8009 datasheet . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130201084821/http://www.tilera.com/sites/default/files/productbriefs/TILE-Gx8009_PB036-02.pdf . 2013-02-01 .
3. Web site: TILE-Gx8016 datasheet . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130226132403/http://www.tilera.com/sites/default/files/productbriefs/Tile-Gx-8016-SB011-03.pdf . 2013-02-26 .
4. Web site: TILE-Gx8036 datasheet . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130322173116/http://www.tilera.com/sites/default/files/productbriefs/TILE-Gx8036_PB033-02_web.pdf . 2013-03-22 .
5. Web site: TILE-Gx8072 datasheet . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130816184035/http://www.tilera.com/sites/default/files/productbriefs/TILE-Gx8072_PB041-02.pdf . 2013-08-16 .
6. Web site: TILE-Gx architecture shema . JPG . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130322185542/http://tilera.com/sites/default/files/images/content/tile-gx-architecture.jpg . 2013-03-22 .
7. News: MIT's 100-core CPU Will Be Ready This Year. 21 February 2013. 24 January 2012.
8. News: Tilera announces 72-core Tile-Gx chip. https://web.archive.org/web/20130702144445/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2244661/tilera-announces-72core-tilegx-chip. unfit. July 2, 2013. 21 February 2013. 19 February 2013.
9. Web site: END OF LIFE NOTIFICATION . Nvidia . 21 May 2023 . 11 April 2022.
10. News: Linux 4.17 Spring Cleaning To Drop Some Old CPU Architectures. 21 January 2021. 17 March 2018.