The "Vortex" processor is a general purpose CPU with a novel architecture and instruction set. The pri- mary feature of the Vortex architecture is many par- allel function units which communicate through a cen- tral crossbar, instead of a traditional register file. In- structions are fetched in parallel by cache lines, as in a VLIW processor, but any data or structural dependen- cies are resolved deterministically by the hardware, as in a superscalar processor.

The prototype Vortex CPU supports a 32-bit integer datapath and executes up to 9 instructions per cycle. It uses the "integrated pipelining" asynchronous design style, was fabricated in 2001 in TSMC's 0.15um G pro- cess, and runs at a typical frequency of 475MHz. Al- though the Vortex CPU itself has not been commercial- ized, many of its component circuits have been used in the products of Fulcrum Microsystems.