“Defining a system-on-chip as “a single-die component that
boots,” David Feldman, chief executive officer of ZF Linux Devices,
says the company’s MachZ is the first PC system-on-chip worthy of
the name. Housed in a 388-ball plastic ball-grid array measur-ing
35 mm on a side, the low-power, cost-optimized MachZ is claimed to
provide quick time-to-market as well as a unique “crash-proof”
scheme suited to embedded applications.”
“Based on an AMD Elan core running at 133 MHz, the
MachZ includes both north-bridge and south-bridge functions
and dissipates less than 1/2 watt. It comes equipped with a
Phoenix BIOS and a “tailored” version of either Linux or
VxWorks, all with appropriate licenses. The chip also carries
initialization code that lets it uniquely boot up without external
memory or the need to load a BIOS and operating system-the first to
provide “autonomous boot,” according to the company.”
“The MachZ “allows upgrades over the Internet while eliminating
the possibility of irrecoverable crashes,” said Feldman. It
incorporates a redundant boot mechanism “that allows full recovery
even when the system BIOS is corrupted,” he said.”