Freescale today announced that it has begun sampling its eight-core QorlQ P4080 processor, built using 45nm fabrication technology. The firm reports that market acceptance for Freescale’s QorIQ P4080 product has been "exceptionally" strong. Numerous early-adopter customers have initiated product development with the P4080 device and OEMs from around the world have selected the P4080 for their systems. The high-end processor is being used in various segments including router, media gateway, military/aeronautics, and 3G/4G wireless infrastructure applications.

The QorIQ P4080 features eight enhanced Power Architecture e500mc cores. Each core has a dedicated L2 backside cache, sized for optimal performance, and access to a large frontside L3 cache. Full processor independence, including the ability to boot and reset each individual e500mc core, is a defining characteristic of the device.

The cores can work as eight symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) cores, as eight completely asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) cores, or they can be operated with varying degrees of independence with a combination of SMP and AMP groupings.

The QorIQ P4080 features an impressive array of high-speed I/O technologies including dual 10-Gbps Ethernet (XAUI) controllers, eight 1-Gbps Ethernet (SGMII) controllers, three PCI Express v2.0 controllers/ports running at up to 5GHz and two serial RapidIO 1.2 controllers/ports running at up to 3.125GHz.