•  
• EDN Europe MAGAZINE
•  
• Free SUBSCRIPTION
• Subscription Renewal
• View Media Kit

• EDN
• EDN Australia
• EDN Asia
• EDN China
• EDN Japan

The 2008 EDN DSP directory

THIS YEAR’S DIRECTORY CAN HELP YOU TO PEEL AWAY THE LAYERS OF COMPLEXITY TO FIND THE PERFECT DIGITAL-SIGNAL PROCESSOR FOR YOUR PROJECT.

Welcome to the 2008 EDN DSP Directory, which again groups an everexpanding list of digital-signal-processing resources in a single repository. The number of companies, devices, cores, and offerings in the directory continues to grow. Once again, a few companies have dropped off the list, and new companies have replaced them. This continuing increase in processor vendors is a testament to the variety of available processing options and the tremendous variation among requirements, features, and applications for which designers use these devices and cores.

This year’s directory includes the increased presence of multiplecore offerings similar to those that disappeared from the directory a few years ago. One difference between now and then is that these multicore architectures are not merely IP (intellectual-property) cores for licensing, but they exist as silicon products from companies such as Stream Processors and Tilera.

A key aspect of these multicore offerings is how the processing performance can scale beyond a few cores, through lanes or mesh architectures, and how developers can use normal software-programming tools to efficiently employ the on-chip resources of these devices. Will this iteration of multicore architectures that can scale processing performance to dozens or potentially hundreds of cores survive the real-world development demands of the market? Stay tuned for future editions of the directory to find out.

In the meantime, the directory continues to aim to provide designers and system architects with enough visibility into processor options to quickly narrow the list of candidate processors and enable the exploration of multiple approaches for each project. The print version offers a quick and high-level overview of the digitalsignal- processing industry by identifying what is new at each company and what applications each company’s product lines target. As always, our Web site expands the material you find in the print version.

The online “Where did they go?” section helps you find companies that we no longer list because they are out of business, other companies have acquired them, or they’ve failed supply us with the updated information we needed for this year’s directory. This section includes data from previous years to make it possible to track this type of data without having to locate earlier versions of the directory.

The Web version expands greatly on the print edition. It offers not only the print material, but also device tables and detailed pages dedicated to each company’s devices, cores, development tools, and other product offerings. The detailed device pages support a top-level taxonomy that allows you to find the devices by vendor and by application. They also include architectural block diagrams, if available, for each vendor’s offerings.

If you cannot find a company in the directory, or if a company did not participate in the update, please let the company and EDN know that you missed reading about them in the directory. Likewise, if this directory helps you find or choose a device or core, please let the vendor know how you found its part.

Help us continue to make the directory better sending your comments and feedback to dspdirectory@edn.com.

ACTEL, WWW.ACTEL.COM

Actel offers single-chip, nonvolatile FPGA technologies along with signalprocessing capabilities, such as filtering and domain conversion. The company’s DirectCore system-level IP (intellectual- property) blocks target use with its FPGAs, such as the RTAX-S and ProASIC3 device families. When you implement the flexible IP cores in Actel’s flash- and antifuse-based FPGAs, they are immune to firm errors and tolerant of radiation. The company’s devices support a live-at-power-up feature, which allows them to target military, communication, aerospace, and medical applications that require no power-up delay.

ARC INTERNATIONAL,
WWW.ARC.COM

ARC International offers two configurable, 32-bit processor-core families that use a 16/32-bit ISA (instruction- set architecture) providing both RISC and DSP capabilities in a unified design. The ARC 600 targets batteryoperated and cost-sensitive products in the embedded-control, consumer, networking, and automotive markets. The ARC 700 delivers computing performance targeting graphics, media, packet processing, and high-end embedded platforms using operating systems such as Linux. ARC also offers the ARC XY advanced DSP-memory subsystem, which adds a complete DSP engine to ARC CPU cores and enables conventional and signal-processing computation within a single unified architecture.

ATMEL, WWW.ATMEL.COM

Atmel’s bases its DSCs (digital-signal controllers) on the AVR32 UC3, AP7, and ARM926EJ-S cores. Atmel also offers the dual-core, VLIW (verylong- instruction-word), floating-point Diopsis DSPs, which it based on the company’s complex-domain, GFLOPS Magic DSP core coupled with an ARM microncontroller unit. The 220 freely intermixable, 16- and 32-bit extended instructions that the UC3 DSCs support include single-cycle MACs (multiply/ accumulates), multipliers, atomic- memory manipulation, and load/ store instructions with on-the-fly data manipulations, such as load-and-insert bit fields, load and swap and store and swap. Single-cycle SRAM in the pipeline interfaces directly to the CPU and AHB (advanced high-perform ance bus), without using the bus. Atmel DSCs have DMA on all peripherals; a multilayer high-speed bus architecture with optional Ethernet MAC (mediaaccess control); USB host/device interfaces; ADCs; DACs; an EBI (external- bus interface); and a cryptographic engine.

AUSTRIAMICROSYSTEMS,
WWW.AUSTRIAMICROSYSTEMS
.COM

austriamicrosystems offers high-performance analog ICs that it bases on more than 25 years of analog-design and system know-how with its own state-of-the-art manufacturing-and-test facilities. The company leverages customized and standard analog products focusing on power management, sensors and sensor interfaces, and portable audio. The AS3525 is a flexible and fully integrated audio-processor system that the company bases on a 200-MIPS ARM9TDMI core; it supports MP3, AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), AAC, WMA (Windows Media Audio), and Ogg Vorbis audio, and it can support extensive user interfaces, motion graphics, and video playback. Large on-chip RAM leads to a power consumption of 58 mW for a complete flash-based MP3 player.

CAMBRIDGE CONSULTANTS,
WWW.CAMBRIDGE CONSULTANTS.COM

For more than 45 years, Cambridge Consultants’ expertise has spanned from semiconductors, wireless communications, radar systems, advanced sensors, and control systems in automotive electronics, medical devices, and consumer goods.

 

The company’s portfolio of IP (intellectual- property) and development tools includes an extensive library of analog, digital, mixed-signal, and wireless- IP cores together with embeddedsoftware- development and debugging tools, protocol stacks, and design platforms for ASICs and FPGAs. The IP cores are portable and flexible, and designers can tailor them to their specifications with flexible licensing contracts that can be royalty-free. Cambridge Consultants’ silicon-IP offering includes 16- and 32-bit XAP-processor cores and the APE2 configurable datapath DSP.

CHIPWRIGHTS, WWW.CHIPWRIGHTS.COM

Fabless-semiconductor company Chipwrights offers DSPs for audio-, video-, and image-processing applications. The company’s processor family combines a 32-bit RISC-like serialapplication processor with an array of 32-bit, MAC (multiply/accumulate), ALU (arithmetic-logic-unit), and shift parallel processors. The parallel, scalable architecture enables greater data processing than conventional singleand dual-core devices with fewer cycles and less power consumption.

 

This year, Chipwrights introduced the CW5631, which combines an ARM 926EJ-S processor with a 16- or 32-bit (CWVx) parallel processor and a serial-application RISC processor with enhanced-video I/O ports, high-speed USB, I2S/AC97 audio, CompactFlash, a 10/100-Mbit Ethernet interface, and SD (secure-digital)/MMC (multimediacard) interfaces.

CLARKSPUR DESIGN, WWW.CLARKSPUR.COM

Clarkspur Design offers 16-, 24-, and 32-bit DSPs. Its emulator boards support USB-cable controls, and the company offers license-free audio-compression programs, such as Ogg Vorbis.

EVATRONIX, WWW.EVATRONIX.PL

Evatronix offers IP (intellectualproperty) cores and electronic-design services, including a range of processor, USB, serial-interface-controller, data-communication, and networking cores. It also offers two families of programmable DSP cores. The 16-bit C32025 family targets industrial, home, and consumer applications, and the 24-bit C56000 core targets more complex applications requiring high accuracy, such as audio compression and image processing.

GENNUM, WWW.GENNUM.COM

Gennum designs and manufactures semiconductor products for global video, data-communications, and audio markets. The Voyageur DSP targets high-quality-audio and related applications that demand ultra-low-power consumption, programmable flexibility, and compactness. The multiprocessor platform has a reconfigurable architecture that integrates high-resolution ADC and DAC peripherals that are available in miniature packages. Voyageur’s reconfigurable, multicore system comprises hard-wired accelerators and five DSP cores; four of the DSP cores are dual-MAC (multiply/accumulate)- unit cores with a customized instruction set for audio processing, including single-cycle logarithmic and exponential functions. Voyageur contains FFT/ IFFT (fast-Fourier-transform/inverse- FFT) accelerators, hard-wired filterengine blocks of FIR (finite-impulseresponse) and IIR (infinite-impulseresponse) filters, and a perfect-reconstruction programmable time-domain filter bank for subband audio processing.

IMPROV SYSTEMS, WWW.IMPROVSYS.COM

Improv Systems offers the Jazz PSA (programmable-system-architecture) plat form, a configurable, multiprocessor architecture that allows designers to create their own application-based optimized processor cores. Improv’s VLIW (very-long-instruction-word) Jazz-processor architecture employs parallel execution of operations, targeting computationally intensive applications, such as media processing, digital-signal processing, and communication. The fixed-point Jazz cores target general DSP applications.

 

Improv also offers preconfigured cores that are complete hardware and software implementations for highgrowth, emerging markets. Jazz Media cores include video-, audio-, image-, and speech-processing implementations targeting consumer-electronics devices ranging from mobile handsets and portable media players to high-definition digital displays. Jazz Voice cores address the needs of the voice-overpacket market, including all points of the voice network.

IPFLEX, WWW.IPFLEX.COM/EN

The IDT Interprise family of integrated communicationsprocessors delivers data processingat line-rate speed. IDT based the processorcores on the 32-bit MIPS ISA (instruction-set architecture).Interprise processors target SOHO(small-office/home-office) routers, Ethernetswitches, wireless-access points, and VPN (virtual-private-network) equipment.

LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR, WWW.LATTICESEMI.COM

Three of Lattice Semiconductor’s 90-nm FPGA families will interest DSP designers. The recently introduced LatticeXP2 family combines flash configuration memory, LUT (look-uptable) logic, embedded memory, and DSP blocks to enable single-chip, secure, and instant-on FPGAs. The devices provide as many as 40,000 LUTs, 32 18
18 multipliers, and 885 kbits of embedded memory. Lattice also offers the low-cost LatticeECP2 and LatticeECP2M FPGA families, which include as many as 100,000 LUTs, 168 18
18-bit multipliers, 5.3 Mbits of block memory, and 16 channels of 3.125-Gbps SERDES (serializer/ deserializer).

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY, WWW.MICROCHIP.COM/DSPIC

Microchip’s dsPIC DSC (digitalsignal controller), a 16-bit (data) modified Harvard RISC machine, combines the control advantages of a highperformance, 16-bit microcontroller with the high computation speed of a fully implemented DSP to produce a tightly coupled, single-chip, singleinstruction- stream option for embedded- system design. All of Microchip’s 16-bit DSC and microcontroller-unit families share the same core instructions, peripherals, and development tools, and they have compatible pinouts. DSCs add DSP instructions.

 

During the year, Microchip released 18 devices in the 40-MIPS dsPIC33F family. Standouts include four dsPIC33 DSCs, such as a family for a new class of smart-sensor processing and a family to execute sensorless control of the most advanced and energy-efficient motor types, for example with Microchip’s free field-oriented-control algorithm. Additionally, Microchip added three motor-control and three generalpurpose, low-pin-count dsPIC33 DSCs that feature as much as 32 kbytes of flash memory in packages as small as 6
6 mm. The dsPIC33F family continues to grow with flash memory ranging from 12 to 256 kbytes, pin counts of 18 to 100, and a number of peripheral configurations.

 

MIPS Technologies offers a comprehensive line of processor cores that it bases around a processor architecture used in DTV (digital television), broadband access, Wi-Fi, cable-set-top boxes, DVD recorders, HD (high-definition) DVDs, and VOIP (voice-over- Internet-Protocol) applications. The fully synthesizable, 32-bit MIPS32 74K cores can achieve operating frequencies greater than 1 GHz in 65-nm process. The MIPS DSP ASE (application- specific extensions) Revision 2 includes 74 built-in DSP instructions that can eliminate the need for a separate DSP core.

NXP SEMICONDUCTORS, WWW.NXP.COM

NXP Semiconductors’ Nexperia family of media processors targets connected multimedia products in the mobile-wireless, audio, imaging and video, and consumer markets. Forming the DSP component of the Nexperia brand is NXP’s Adelante technology, which includes the classic 16-bit RD1602x and 24-bit RD2412x DSP cores with a user-definable VLIW (very-long-instruction-word) architecture. The high-perform ance Adelante VD3204x embedded-vector DSP family rounds out NXP’s offering. With its innovative vector-processing architecture, which minimizes power consumption, the VD3204x targets computationally intensive functions in communication and broadcast-reception applications. Adelante provides its DSP technology with the Adelante softwaredevelopment kit, a verification environment for multicore SoC (System-on- Chip) architectures.

ON DEMAND MICROELECTRONICS, WWW.ODM.AT

ODM (On Demand Microelectronics) offers IP (intellectual property) and SoCs (Systems on Chips) targeting the upcoming global digital-video revolution. The basis for ODM’s product portfolio is the silicon-proven VSP (video-signal processor)—a scalable, configurable, and fully softwareprogrammable processor. The VSP handles applications with extremely highperformance demands, such as digital video. One of the primary IP cores the ODM offers is the SVEN (scalable- video engine), which can handle high-definition, multistandard-compliant video-codec implementations for resolutions as high as 1080i/720p. Supporting SVEN, ODM offers Pictor, an image-processing platform for highend image processing, and Samba, the first IP for multistandard baseband processing.

RC MODULE, WWW.MODULE.RU

The RC (Research Center) Module design center provides IP (intellectual property) for VLIW/SIMD (very-longinstruction- word/single-instruction/ multiple-data) processors with a flexible and high-performance vector-matrix engine. The architecture targets industrial video-image processing and navigation and provides scalable performance by employing a programmable operand width of 1 to 64 bits. The NeuroMatrix DSP family includes NM6403/04 chips and synthesizable NMC2 cores.

 

The new NMC3 core is the next generation of the NeuroMatrix-core family with performance that offers an eightstage pipeline and 8000-instruction cache that supports eight read/writememory operations per clock cycle and accelerated vector-unit-operand loads. The new NM6405 processor will provide silicon proof for the NMC3. RC Module offers an SoC (System-on-Chip)-design service that it bases on NMC3 and on ARM’s ARM1176JZF-S core.

RF ENGINES, WWW.RFENGINES.COM

RF Engines cores and SoC (System- on-Chip) designs primarily target Xilinx and Altera FPGAs for applications in wireless-communications systems, electronic warfare, spectrum analysis, and medical instrumentation. The HyperLength cores support 1 million-point transforms running at complex sample rates as high as 200M samples/sec on a Xilinx Virtex II 3000. The Matrix cores include a set of different-length DFT (discrete- Fourier-transform) cores that combine to allow the configuration of an FFT (fast Fourier transform) to match the number of points an application requires.

 

The ChannelCore64 can extract as many as 64 narrowband channels from one or two wideband ADC inputs. The PFT (pipelined-frequency-transform) multi channel-filter bank targets use in real-time applications. The Polyphase DFT, or WOLA (weighted overlap and add), is a method of implementing a uniformly distributed multichannel-filter bank. The tunable PFT supports on-the-fly reconfiguration to any frequency plan as a digital front end for the telecommunications, defense, and instrumentation markets. The SpectraChip cores provide a digital replacement for analog intermediate- frequency filtering.

SILICON HIVE, WWW.SILICONHIVE.COM

Silicon Hive, a supplier of semiconductor IP (intellectual property), designs, builds, and licenses applicationspecific products for communications and media processing, tuned processor cores, and program-development tools with application libraries. The company’s processor line-up includes the Avispa-CH1, a high-performance, C-programmable data processor for communications signal processing. The Avispa-IM2 is a general-purpose C-programmable data processor. These two processors are scalable to a high level of operations per cycle, with multiple options for precision, I/O, and memory configurations. The C-programmable SIMD (single-instruction/multiple-data) Moustique-IC2 processor targets image- signal-processing applications with multiple options for SIMD-vector dimension, I/O, and memory configurations.

STREAM PROCESSORS, WWW. STREAMPROCESSORS.COM

Fabless-semiconductor company SPI (Stream Processors Inc) offers parallel- processor options targeting consumer and industrial applications. Its stream-processor architecture reduces computational costs to ASIC levels and makes the performance benefits of parallel processing easily accessible to programmers.

 

SPI began shipping its Storm-1 family of stream processors in 2006, targeting video and image processing in applications such as intelligent video surveillance, high-definition videoconferencing, broadcasting, and multifunction printers. The Storm-1 family comprises four software-compatible products—from the low-cost, low-power SP8LP-G30 suitable as a single-chip IP (Internet Protocol) camera product, to the SP16HP-G220, which delivers 448 GOPS (billion operations/sec) of computational performance and targets high-end imaging and multichannel video applications. The streamprocessor architecture combines data parallelism with a sophisticated Cdevelopment environment to simplify programming.

TENSILICA, WWW.TENSILICA. COM

Tensilica offers both Diamond Standard DSP-optimized processor cores and Xtensa configurable processors. The Diamond Standard family includes three DSP-optimized cores. The Diamond three-issue VLIW (very-long-instruction-word) 545CK DSP has eight-way SIMD (single-instruction/ multiple-data) units, dual 128-bit load/stores, and a Viterbi convolutional-coder accelerator. The Diamond 330HiFi audio engine includes dedicated audio instructions to decrease frequency requirements and supports more than 30 popular audio encoders and decoders. The Diamond 388VDO video engine targets D1 standard-definition resolution and offers H.264 baseline and main-profile decoding, H.264 baseline profile encoding, and other software for JPEG, MPEG, and VC-1/WMV9. Other Diamond Standard processors, including the 212GP, the 232L and the 570T, incorporate 16-bit MAC (multiply/ accumulate) units, a 32
32-bit multiplier, and integer dividers for easier DSP tasks.

 

Xtensa processors allow designers to select and configure predefined elements of the architecture and invent instructions and hardware-execution units to maximize performance. The Xtensa LX2 processor core with the Vectra DSP engine supports wide datapaths and traditional DSP tasks. The system can deliver RTL-equivalent I/O through a ports-and-queues mechanism that directly connects to the processor’s execution unit to bypass the load/store operation. The Vectra LX DSP engine uses 64-bit instruction words containing three-issue slots for ALU (arithmetic-logic-unit), MAC, and load/store operations.

TILERA, WWW.TILERA.COM

The IDT Interprise family of integrated communicationsprocessors delivers data processingat line-rate speed. IDT based the processorcores on the 32-bit MIPS ISA (instruction-set architecture).Interprise processors target SOHO(small-office/home-office) routers, Ethernetswitches, wireless-access points, and VPN (virtual-private-network) equipment.

 

The Tile64 processor SoC (System on Chip) has 64 full-featured processor cores plus system-integration blocks, including four DDR2-memory controllers with ECC (error-correcting code); two 10-Gbps, four-lane PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interfaces; two XAUI (10- Gbit-attachment-unit-interface) 10- GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) controllers, two 1-Gbit RGMII (reduced-Gigabit media-independent-interface) Ethernet controllers; and 64 bits of flexible I/O that can support HD-video input or other high-speed interfaces. The device includes 5 Mbytes of cache, and each processor core can independently run a full operating system, such as Linux. It is available in speeds of 600 to 866 MHz.

 

Tilera based the Tile64 family on a tiled, multicore architecture with a mesh-based on-chip interconnect that delivers as much as 32 Tbps of interconnect bandwidth between the cores and allows scaling the architecture beyond hundreds of cores.

XILINX, WWW.XILINX.COM

Xilinx offers PLDs and FPGAs. Its XtremeDSP includes a portfolio of DSP devices that target high-performance signal processing with software tools that support design development in Matlab, Simulink, and C/C, along with development kits and reference designs in wireless and video applications. Xilinx XtremeDSP application- optimized products are also available for medical imaging, military/ aerospace, mobile/wireless-basestation, imaging, and video systems.

 

Xilinx DSP devices include the Virtex- 4, Virtex-5, and Spartan-3 family of FPGAs, which feature as many as 640 18
25-DSP slices operating as fast as 550 MHz. Software tools such as System Generator for DSP and AccelDSP Synthesis suites make it easier for designers to port their algorithms.

ALTERA, WWW.ALTERA.COM

Altera’s portfolio of FPGAs, structured ASICs, and CPLD products targets many electronics markets. Building on the Stratix device family, the 65-nm Stratix III FPGAs incorporate features, including dedicated DSP blocks, to combine high performance with the lowest possible static- and dynamic-power consumption; these new devices improve performance by as much as 50% over previousgeneration high-end FPGA devices. Stratix III FPGAs include programmable- power technology; selectable core voltage, process, and circuit technologies; and support from the Quartus II PowerPlay power-analysis and -optimization technology. The 65-nm Cyclone III FPGAs—with 288 embedded multipliers for DSP applications— target high-volume applications requiring low power, high performance, and low cost.

ANALOG DEVICES, WWW.ANALOG.COM

Analog Devices’ DSP offerings include the Blackfin, SHARC, and Tiger- SHARC families of processors. The Black fin processor family combines a 32-bit RISC-like instruction set with 16-bit dual MAC (multiply/accumulate) units and targets convergent applications with audio-, video-, and data-processing requirements. The devices’ dynamic power management enables lower power consumption by supporting the simultaneous adjustment of system operating frequency and voltage under application control.

 

The SHARC-processor family targets applications ranging from consumer, automotive, and professional audio, to industrial, test and measurement, and medical equipment. The 32-bit floating/ fixed-point core architecture includes a sophisticated memory and I/O-processing subsystem.

 

The TigerSHARC-processor family offers high-density floating- and fixedpoint performance. It supports glueless- multiprocessor scalability, targeting wireless-communications-infrastructure, medical-imaging, industrial-imaging, and military applications.

 

Analog Devices’ SigmaDSP audio processors provide a single-chip audio system with a 28/56-bit audio DSP, ADCs, DACs, and microcontrollerlike control interfaces. Signal-processing elements include equalization, crossover, bass enhancement, multiband dynamics processing, delay compensation, speaker compensation, and stereo-image widening, which you can use to compensate for the real-world limitations of speakers, amplifiers, and listening environments.

ARM, WWW.ARM.COM

ARM licenses semiconductor IP (intellectual property), including processors, peripherals, interconnect and physical libraries for the development of complex SoC (System-on-Chip) devices. ARM processors target automotive, consumer-entertainment, imaging, networking, storage, security, and wireless-system applications, and ARM bases them on a common architecture that emphasizes performance, low power consumption, and reduced system cost. The company offers the ARM7, ARM9, ARM10, and ARM11, as well as the Cortex family of processors featuring Thumb-2 technology and the SecurCore-processor family. ARM’s DSP-enhanced cores support products that require a mixture of DSP and control functions on a single core. ARM Neon technology provides powerful, flexible acceleration for media and DSP applications; ARM OptimoDE data-engine technology targets power-efficient, deeply embedded signal-processing applications; and the ARM9E processor family targets products for microcontroller DSP and Java applications.

CEVA, WWW.CEVA-DSP.COM

In the past year, Ceva introduced its TeakLite-III DSP Core, a third-generation DSP core the company based on the TeakLite DSP architecture. This feature-rich, native-32-bit architecture is backward-compatible with previous versions of Ceva-TeakLite cores and delivers higher performance for less power for applications such as HD (highdefinition) audio for home entertainment and audio processing for highend- multimedia devices. The company also enhanced the Mobile-Media portable multi media platform, with support for the RealVideo and VC-1 video formats. Mobile-Media is configurable for end markets ranging from low-cost, video-only applications through to complete multimedia products for highresolution- media products.

 

Ceva licenses a family of synthesizable, programmable DSP cores; DSPbased subsystems; and applicationspecific plat forms. The Ceva-X DSP architecture supports features and capabilities for advanced signal-processing requirements, including 3G/3.5G/ WiMax (worldwide-interoperabilityfor- microwave-access) baseband and video, audio, and VOIP processing.

CIRRUS LOGIC, WWW.CIRRUS.COM

Cirrus Logic offers DSPs targeting audio applications. The company’s portfolio includes single-core and multicore DSPs for consumer markets as well as CobraNet audio-system processors for professional, commercial, and consumer markets, featuring Cirrus Logic’s CobraNet technology for delivering uncompressed digital audio over Ethernet networks.

CRADLE TECHNOLOGIES, WWW.CRADLE.COM

Fabless-semiconductor company Cradle Technologies develops multicore DSPs targeting next-generation multimedia- system applications. Cradle delivers high-performance, scalable, programmable DSP platforms for video and imaging in security and surveillance, high-performance imaging, and broadcast and IPTV (Internet Protocol-television) head-end-infrastructure applications. The CT3616, Cradle’s flagship multicore system, can provide real-time encoding of Main Profile H.264 at D1 resolution on one chip.

FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR, WWW.FREESCALE.COM

Freescale Semiconductor offers programmable DSPs that target audio, mobile-handset devices, and advanced communications-infrastructure equipment. The quad-core MSC8144 is the company’s highest performing programmable DSP. The MXC architecture, which integrates StarCore DSP technology, targets 2.75G and 3G mobile applications. The Symphony family of audio DSPs targets high-fidelity professional-, consumer-, and automotive- audio applications.

 

Freescale also offers DSCs (digitalsignal controllers) that combine the computational power of DSPs with the ease of use and control functions of microcontrollers in single-chip devices for motor control, digital-power conversion, and lighting-control applications.

 

Last year, the company introduced a voice-enabled GPON (gigabit-passive- optical-networking) SoC (System on Chip). Delivering gigabit line-rate packet forwarding, the MSC7120 integrates a StarCore DSP, an e300 CPU built on Power Architecture technology, and a datapath engine to deliver a complete PON (passive-opticalnetwork) subsystem in a single device.

HYPERSTONE, WWW.HYPERSTONE.COM

Hyperstone’s processors provide integrated RISC/DSP functions for applications requiring a high-speed microprocessor with a high-performance DSP. These processors feature dual execution units in a pipelined architecture sharing registers. They can mix RISC- and DSP-specific programming transparently to the programmer. They execute RISC/DSP instructions with a high degree of parallelism, resulting in high throughput.

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES, WWW.INFINEON.COM

Infineon Technologies offers 8-, 16-, and 32-bit microcontroller families with DSP capabilities. The 8-bit XC800 family incorporates a Vector Computer unit that suits sensorlessfield- oriented-control applications. The 16-bit XC16x family, with integrated MAC (multiply/accumulate) and CapCom6E units, targets motor-control schemes, such as constant VF, frequency slip, and field-oriented control. The 32-bit TC116X family, which Infineon bases on the TriCore unifiedmicrocomputer/ DSP architecture, targets applications such as servo control, audio-domain digital-signal processing, data communications, modems, automotive systems, and portable systems.

 

In 2007, Infineon introduced two 16-bit families it based on the C166S V2 core. The XE166 RTSC (real-time signal controller) and the XC2000 have a normal instruction set for general task control and a MAC (multiply/ accumulate) instruction set dedicated to DSP and 32-bit mathematical operations. The XE166 RTSCs can simultaneously control as many as four motors. The XC2000 family addresses the complexity of automotive applications from body and gateway applications to air bags, electronic power steering, and power trains.

LSI LOGIC, WWW.LSILOGIC.COM

See the “Where did they go?” section at the online version of this article at www.edn.com/dspdirectory. VeriSilicon ac quired LSI Logic’s ZSP division.

MORPHO TECHNOLOGIES, WWW.MORPHOTECH.COM

Morpho Technologies focuses on processing engines for software-defined radio. Its MS2, a platform for ultralow- power software-multimode radio, targets applications such as handsets. In addition, Morpho licenses a WiMax (worldwide-interoperability-for-microwave- access)-system product through integrated hardware and software IP (intellectual property), and it includes the MS2 PHY (phys

OCTASIC, WWW.OCTASIC.COM

Octasic offers DSP-silicon devices and software for the converged carrier, enterprise, and endpoint-communication- equipment markets. Its Vocallo multicore-media-gateway DSP, which the company introduced last year, is a next-generation platform that targets voice, video, and data-over-IP (Internet Protocol) applications. The hardware and software platform allows media-gateway developers to match an offering to their requirements. Vocallo allows designers to add their own software to the framework to differentiate their products.

PICOCHIP, WWW.PICOCHIP.COM

PicoChip’s family of high-performance multicore-DSP devices includes 200 to 300 processors, each a 16-bit Harvard architecture that is programmable with ANSI C, to deliver total performance of 200 GIPS/30 GMACs (billion multiply/accumulates). Although these processors are usable for any high-performance DSP application, the company focuses on the wireless infrastructure. The processor finds use in base stations as a common platform for both WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) and LTE (long-term evolution). It also supports baseband for femtocells—small base stations for indoor coverage.

PIXELWORKS, WWW.PIXELWORKS.COM

Pixelworks designs, develops, and mar kets semiconductors and software for the advanced-display industry, including advanced televisions, multimedia projectors, digital-streaming-media devices, and LCD panels. Pixelworks’ line of programmable BSPs (broadband- signal processors) can handle multiple codecs for high-quality IPTV (Internet Protocol-television) video and other digital-video applications. The company offers the DreamStream application-reference software for designers using the BSP chips. In addition to the BSP ICs, Pixelworks offers single-purpose discrete ICs and SoCs (Systems on Chips) that can process and enhance the video signal throughout

RENESAS TECHNOLOGY, WWW.RENESAS.COM

Renesas Technology’s SuperH family includes a series of high-performance, 32-bit RISC processors with DSP capabilities. The SH-2A and SH-4A employ a superscalar architecture with a built-in FPU (floating-point unit) for higher performance, delivering as much as 1080 MIPS. The SuperH architecture integrates both DSP and FPU capabilities into one RISC CPU core to save power and overall system cost. These devices are compatible with the previous-generation devices.

SENSORY, WWW.SENSORYINC.COM

Sensory’s RSC (recognition/synthesis/ control) family of devices performs recognition, speech synthesis, and general-purpose product control. The RSC line supports speaker-independent recognition, speaker-dependent recognition, speaker verification for voicebased biometric security, 2400-bps speech compression for speech playback, and music synthesis. The RSC-4x family provides on-chip integration of features, including a microphone preamplifier, twin-DMA units, a vector accelerator, and a hardware multiplier. Sensory’s SC-6x series of DSPs offers multiple options for introducing speech- and music-synthesis abilities into consumer products.

STMICROELECTRONICS, WWW.STM.COM

STMicroelectronics’ portfolio includes application-specific products containing a large proprietary IP (intellectual- property) content and multisegment products that range from discrete devices to high-perform ance microcontrollers, secure smart-card chips, and MEMS (microelectromechanical- system) devices. Within its portfolio of products, ST develops a family of high-performance VLIW (very-long-instruction-word) cores targeting primarily the consumer, mobile, and computer-and-peripheral markets. The ST240 is the latest core offering from the ST200 family of VLIW processors.

STRETCH, WWW.STRETCHINC.COM

Stretch offers a family of softwareconfigurable processors with embedded programmable logic to target imaging and video, mobile/wireless, security, and industrial applications. Using C/C programming tools, system developers can automatically configure Stretch’s processors to address changing application needs. Stretch’s S6000 family of software-configurable processors targets high-performance video- and wireless-signal processing. The S6 architecture offers a second- generation ISEF (instruction-setextension fabric), a processor array, and a programmable accelerator.

 

Stretch and its partners offer reference hardware and software applications for main-profile, standarddefinition- and high-definition-resolution MPEG-2 and H.264 video encoding. Stretch and its partners also offer hardware and software applications for WiMax (worldwide-interoperability- for-microwave-access) base-station equipment.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, WWW.TI.COM

Texas Instruments offers a broad portfolio of programmable DSPs. The TMS320C5000 DSP platform targets the consumer digital market and its convergence with communication electronics. With power consumption as low as 0.33 mA/MHz and performance as high as 600 MIPS, C5000 DSPs suit portable media and communication products, including digitalmusic players, GPS (global-positioning- system) receivers, and portable medical equipment.

 

The TMS320C6000 DSP platform comprises high-performance fixed- and floating-point DSPs targeting video, imaging, broadband-infrastructure, and performance-audio applications. Running at 350 MHz, the TMS320C6727B DSP is TI’s highest performing floating- point DSP. The TMS320C6424 and C6421 DSPs, available for prices starting at $8.95 (10,000), provide performance of as many as 4800 MMACs (million multiply/accumulates) at 600 MHz. The 900-MHz TMS320C6452 DSP targets process-intensive multichannel infrastructure and medicalimaging systems. TI’s new 1.2-GHz TMS320C6455 DSP is the company’s fastest single-core DSP.

 

DaVinci technology comprises scalable, programmable processors, software, tools, and support that work together to ease the development of digital-video applications. The TMS- 320DM647 and DM 648 DSPs target multichannel video-security and infrastructure applications and provide a seamless migration path for videoprocessing applications based on the TMS320DM642. The TMS320- DM355 digital-media processor aims at portable, high-definition video products and comprises an integrated video-processing subsystem, an MJCP (MPEG-4-JPEG coprocessor), an ARM926EJ-S core, and peripherals. TI’s newest DaVinci processor, the TMS320DM6467, is a single-chip, real- time HD (high-definition)-videotranscoding option that allows consumers to seamlessly move content across their video end products, such as media gateways, multipoint-control units, digital-media adapters, videosecurity DVRs (digital-video recorders), and IP (Internet Protocol) set-top boxes.

 

The TMS320C2000 DSC (digitalsignal controller) combines controlperipheral integration and ease of use with the processing power and C-language efficiency of TI’s DSP technology. TI’s new TMS320F2833x controller series comprises floating- point DSCs that provide 300- MFLOPS performance at 150 MHz and enable energy-efficient industrial applications.

 

To address the market need for advanced yet easy access to information and media, TI’s OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform), including OMAP3503, OMAP3515, OMAP 3525, and OMAP3530, supporing general-purpose, multimedia, and graphics processing. The ARM Cortex-A8 core provides laptoplike performance at handheld-system power levels. TI’s scalable OMAP processors provide a variety of combination options, including the Cortex- A8 core, multimedia-rich peripheral, accelerators, and TMS320C64x DSP core to address demand for increased graphics and Web-browsing capabilities.

 

TI’s TMS320TCI6488 integrated multicore-baseband processor targets W-CDMA (wideband-code-divisionmultiple- access) wireless-infrastructure basestations. The 3-GHz-TCI6488 supports the necessary baseband functions for a macro base station on a single chip. The TCI6488 can support both voice and data transmission with low latency, including 48 users per device in an HDSPA (high-speeddownlink- packet-access)-macro base station.

 

The 65-nm, single-core, 1-GHz TMS 320TCI6484 DSP combines both MAC (media-aqccess-control)- and PHY (phy sical)-layer functions on one chip to support multiprocessing beyond 3G cellular-infrastructure applications, including HSPA/HSPA , LTE (long-term evolution), and WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) Wave 2. Based on TI’s TMS320C64x core, the TCI6484 DSP supports symbol-rate processing at 34 Mbps, reduces latency for better quality of service, and eliminates the need for a RISC coprocessor. The MAC/PHY-layer functions make the TCI6484 a scalable, converged option that is reusable across pico, micro, and macro base stations.

VERISILICON, WWW.VERISILICON.COM

The VeriSilicon IC-design foundry provides custom and SoC (System-on- Chip) turnkey services. Last year, the company acquired the ZSP division of LSI Logic. VeriSilicon’s licensable ZSP DSP and IP (intellectual-property)- based SoC platforms target application markets for voice and wireless communications and multimedia.

XMOS, WWW.XMOS.COM

XMOS is a venture-developmentcompany- backed fabless-semiconductor company developing SDS (softwaredefined silicon)—the next generation of programmable chips. The company’s programmable devices are available for $1 to $15. To ensure that the development costs do not negate the unit-cost savings, the company offers an innovative way to access the programmable hardware through a software-baseddesign flow that bypasses hardware descriptions and logic synthesis.

 

XMOS based its technology on the compact, event-driven, multithreaded XCore processor. This 32-bit RISC processor supports as many as eight threads and integrates support resources into the XCore-tile building block.