InsideDSP — In-depth analysis and opinion

Latest StarCore Architecture Promises More Speed

Last week StarCore unveiled the first details of its next-generation DSP core family, the SC3000. The most notable new feature is the family’s high clock rate: According to StarCore, SC3000 cores will achieve a clock rate of 1 GHz in a high-performance 90 nm process. In comparison, StarCore claims that SC2000 cores can achieve clock rates of about 600 MHz under the same conditions. (The clock speeds quoted in this article assume nominal silicon under worst-case voltage and temperature Read more...

ARC Previews Powerful Media Extensions

Last week processor core licensor ARC introduced a multimedia subsystem for its ARC 700 family of configurable cores. This multimedia subsystem extends the ARC 700 CPU with new instructions, a powerful SIMD engine, memory, a DMA controller, and video decoding software. The SIMD engine is the most notable feature of this subsystem. This engine features a 128-bit-wide data path that can perform up to sixteen 8-bit operations, eight 16-bit operations or four 32-bit operations per cycle. In Read more...

Case Study: Video Benchmarking

Digital video has emerged as one of the hottest markets for DSPs and other types of processors. As a result, many processors now target digital video applications. However, not every processor is up to the challenge. Digital video applications have heavy computation and memory-bandwidth loads, so it’s critical to choose a processor that can handle those demands. For this reason, system and SoC designers who are evaluating processors for digital video applications are strongly motivated to Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Suboptimal Optimization

Those of us who earn our livelihoods working with embedded signal processing software understand that optimization isn’t just something we do for fun (though often it is quite fun). Optimization is usually done to meet hard real-time constraints, trim product costs, or stretch battery life. We all know that the complexity of the processor core has a significant impact on how difficult it will be to optimize the code. But more and more, it’s critical to also consider the complexity of the Read more...

ARM Takes New Direction With Latest Core

Last week ARM announced its latest processor core, the Cortex-A8. The Cortex-A8 is the highest-performance ARM processor to date, and it differs in many ways from older ARM cores. Perhaps the most obvious difference is the name: Instead of the traditional naming scheme (ARM7, ARM9, ARM11, etc.), the processor uses the new “Cortex” brand. The “A” in the name indicates that the Cortex-A8 is an “application” processor targeting systems that require a full-featured OS like Linux. Target markets Read more...

Case Study: Multi-Tiered Software Optimization

While nearly all signal processing applications require some degree of software optimization, some applications require a sophisticated, multi-tiered optimization approach in order to meet their performance goals. To obtain the most efficient code, DSP software must be optimized at four distinct levels. First, the software architecture and data flow must be designed to take maximum advantage of the processor’s resources. Second, the appropriate data types must be selected—too big and you’re Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Video Processors: Why the Rush?

In the last year or so I have noticed an impressive surge in new processors targeting digital video applications. Hardly a month goes by without a vendor announcing that it has the ultimate video processor. Countless new companies have sprung up to address this hot market, and established processor vendors are scrambling to re-spin their offerings for digital video. Why is everyone suddenly so eager to market a digital video processor? One reason is that digital video products show great Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

I’m usually an easy-going guy, but there are some things I really hate. For example, I hate the bait-and-switch: it makes me cranky when someone offers me something that looks appealing, only to later substitute something much less attractive. Along these same lines, I hate it when I pay upwards of $1000 to attend a technical conference only to find myself sitting in a presentation that is, essentially, an advertisement. Why should I pay good money to hear a company promote itself? I can Read more...

TI Announces “DaVinci” Video Technology

This month Texas Instruments announced that it will offer a new line of products for implementing digital video applications. TI’s “DaVinci Digital Video Technology” encompasses new video-oriented chips, software, and tools, all of which are intended to be used together to help companies quickly develop new video products. Thus far, only the DaVinci brand has been introduced; TI expects to announce specific DaVinci products before the end of the year. The forthcoming DaVinci chips will Read more...

MIPS Buys FS2, Gets Cozy With Virage

On September 6, core licensor MIPS made two announcements that promise to make life easier for MIPS licensees. In the first of these announcements, MIPS revealed that it had acquired FS2, a company specializing in debugging technology. FS2 is best known for its "On-Chip Instrumentation" (OCI) embedded trace modules. FS2's embedded trace modules are included as part of some licensable cores; these trace modules are also available as a licensable option for some cores. FS2 already offers Read more...