Charting a processor roadmap is a difficult task. To set a successful course for a processor family, a processor developer must predict trends in the processor’s target applications as well as developments in competing processor families. The developer must then determine how to evolve its offerings in order to respond to these expected changes. For example, remaining competitive may require a carefully balanced mix of lowering prices, raising clock speeds, and adding architectural features.
Designers of new processors face a similar challenge: their processors must be competitive not only with existing competitors, but also with new competitors that will arrive while their processors are in development. Again, this means that designers must extrapolate trends in target applications and in competitors’ processors.
In either case, collecting and analyzing competitive data is a hurdle. A processor developer may need to consider several target applications and dozens of competitors. And it may not be enough to consider only one processor from each competing processor family. Instead, the developer may need to consider family members that target varied goals, such as the fastest processor from each family and the least expensive processor from each family. Merely collecting data for all the combinations of applications and processors is difficult. Analyzing all of this data and presenting the results can be a major undertaking.
BDTI’s Benchmark Analysis Tool™ (BAT) helps developers meet these challenges. The BAT enables processor developers to quickly compare their processor to the competition using results from the BDTI Benchmarks™, a suite of twelve signal processing benchmarks. The BAT provides a weighting feature that allows processor developers to quickly tune the mix of benchmarks to each of their target applications.
The BAT comes prefilled with benchmark results for up to eighteen processor families. BDTI also provides speed, pricing, and power data for up to three processors from each processor family. This wealth of data allows processor developers to compare processors on a variety of performance metrics, including speed, cost efficiency, and energy efficiency. And the BAT provides a number of tools to help developers analyze these results. For example, the overall results for each metric are summarized in an easy-to-read chart.
In one recent engagement, a processor developer used the BAT to analyze the competitive position of its newest processors. Using the BAT, the processor developer was able to quickly compare its processors to competitors that ranged from DSPs to general-purpose processors, including both licensable cores and off-the-shelf chips. To learn how the BAT can help you stay competitive, contact Jeremy Giddings (giddings@BDTI.com).
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