The ShBoom Microprocessor - Java on a chip.

The chip is a highly integrated 100MHz RISC processor. The CPU is byte coded with a stacked ALU, local register stack, and sixteen global registers. Its zero-operand, 32-bit, stack oriented ShBoom architecture is ideally suited to operate the Java Virtual Machine, executing many Java byte codes in a single instruction cycle. A zero-operand design eliminates most operand bits and the decoding time and the instruction space they require. Instructions thus shrunk to 8-bits significantly increase the instruction bandwidth and reduce program size.

By not using pipeline or superscalar execution, the resulting control simplicity increases execution speed to issue and complete an instruction in a single clock cycle--as often as every clock cycle--without a conventional instruction cache. This increases the performance and decreases the cost of the chip. To ensure an even lower cost chip, a data cache and it's costs are also eliminated in favour of efficient register cache elements of the operand stack and the top sixteen elements of the local register (variable) stack are cached on-chip.

Patriot’s own CyberShark line of ISDN PC-compatible plug-in Terminal Adapters (TAs) have been designed with the ShBoom processor in mind, leaving the way open to very sophisticated portable Internet devices.

"Whether as the stand-alone processor in a small Internet device or a plug-in card to enhance a computer’s Internet capabilities, we believe the patented ShBoom architecture has a home with Internet devices" said Elwood G. Norris, president of Patriot Scientific Corp.

Table: Comparison of processor requirement for Java’s IADD byte code

processor	ShBoom2	PowerPC 1	PowerPC2	Pentium1	Pentium2	680x01	680x02
bytes	1	24	16	22	10	12	2
instructions	1	6	4	7	3	4	1
memory cycles	1/4 - 3*	9	5	9	3 «	6	1 «

*The PSC1000 will be 1/4 memory cycle for the instruction fetch in the best and typical case.

The Webbook Company of Michigan is developing just such an inexpensive portable computer based device to access the World Wide Web and have selected the ShBoom microprocessor as its key technology.

Mr Durrett, Founder and president of WebBook said " We are looking for a volume of at least 1 million units through 1998 and have selected technology that will carry us there without fear of obsolescence." Volume production of the WebBook is scheduled for late 1996.

"We are using Java, to be built into the WebBook, in order to escape the restrictions and complexities of a monolithic operating system such as Windows `95 and the popular variants of Unix" Mr. Durrett noted. "Teaming with an Internet Access Provider, The WebBook Company will offer the end customer secure virtual disks and other value added services."