InsideDSP — In-depth analysis and opinion

TI Demonstrates 1GHz ‘C64xx

On May 5th, TI announced that it had demonstrated a ’C64xx chip running at 1GHz. TI did not announce any ’C64xx products at this clock speed, but indicated that it expects to be sampling such chips in the first half of next year. (The fastest ’C64xx devices currently available run at 720 MHz.) The new TI chips will target signal-processing intensive applications such as communications infrastructure equipment and high-definition video systems. TI’s demo is intended to give its customers Read more...

BOPS Assets Rumored Acquired by Altera

The one-line statement, “BOPS Inc. has ceased operations,” is all that remains at www.BOPS.com. Although there was no formal announcement of BOPS’s demise, the company’s closure has been common knowledge for some months. In an interesting development, recent reports—as yet unconfirmed—suggest that BOPS’ assets, including its extensive patent portfolio, have been acquired by FPGA giant Altera. Altera has not announced any such acquisition and, when asked, the company declined to comment. Such Read more...

Observations From ISPC/GSPx

Last month BDTI participated in the International Signal Processing Conference and Global Signal Processing Expo (ISPC/GSPx) held in Dallas, Texas. The conference included many insightful presentations on tough signal-processing problems. The presenters represented a mix of corporations and universities, and topics ranged from practical tips to esoteric algorithms. One of the more interesting presentations introduced AccelFGPA, a tool under development by the venture-backed start-up Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Stuck in the Past

In his keynote address at last month’s International Signal Processing Conference, Professor Alan Oppenheim showed how traditional signal processing methods can clash with advances in computing hardware. Professor Oppenheim compared two approaches to implementing the discrete Fourier transform. Most DSP engineers assume that the usual approach, the fast Fourier transform (“FFT”), is always the most efficient. However, Professor Oppenheim showed that the FFT is less efficient than other Read more...

ADI Improves Blackfin’s Speed, Cost, and Power

Last month Analog Devices announced three new members of its Blackfin DSP family, the ADSP-BF531, ADSP-BF532, and ADSP-BF533. The fastest of the new chips, the ’BF533, operates at clock speeds of up to 600 MHz—twice the clock speed of earlier Blackfin DSPs. With this increased clock speed, the ’BF533 is faster than most mainstream DSPs, but still slower than today’s fastest DSPs. For example, the BDTI Benchmarks™ show that the 600 MHz ’BF533 is about twice as fast as a 300 MHz TI ’C55xx but Read more...

Reconfigurable Architectures Win Backing for 3G

Reconfigurable processors have long shown great promise for performance-hungry signal processing applications, but these architectures have garnered little mainstream acceptance. This may be changing, though; recent announcements suggest reconfigurable processors may soon become common in 3G base stations. Architecturally, reconfigurable processors share some attributes with digital signal processors (DSPs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and application-specific integrated Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—FUBU or FUBAR?

A 1995 survey found that 17% of VCR clocks were flashing “12:00.” This fact may make a great joke for a stand-up comedian, but it highlights a serious problem for consumer electronics companies: user interfaces are rarely user-friendly. While most people can live with a flashing VCR clock, poor interfaces are slowing the acceptance of advanced consumer electronics. I recently observed some dramatic examples of the perils of bad user interfaces. A few weeks ago I visited a retirement home Read more...

Special Feature: New Chips for Wireless Applications

Editor’s Note: In the last month there has been a deluge of chips announced for wireless products. Many of these announcements came from industry leaders, and many of the announcements introduced significant new technologies. While we can’t cover all of the significant announcements from the last two months in this issue of the DSP Insider, we’ll highlight some of the most notable developments in the following feature article. This February, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Read more...

TI Expands Into Base Station Chipsets

Today, TI introduced two 3G chipsets, one for handsets and one for base stations. Although TI and other vendors have long offered handset chipsets, TI’s base station chipset is the first from a major semiconductor vendor. ASIC-plus-DSP designs dominate the base station market for a number of reasons, including high computational loads, power constraints, and cost pressures. Nonetheless, TI says the superior cost and performance of its chipset will enable it to displace ASIC-based designs. Read more...

LSI’s Energy-Efficient LSI403LP Hits Production

Last August, LSI Logic announced a new member of its LSI40x DSP processor chip family, the LSI403LP. The new chip targets cost- and power-sensitive applications, particularly audio and voice processing. LSI says that at 150 MHz and 1.2 volts the LSI403LP burns just 55 mW of power—an impressively low figure. According to LSI, the chip has now reached production and is available at 150 MHz for about $10 in 10K quantities. The LSI403LP is based on LSI’s ZSP400 DSP core, a superscalar, 16-bit Read more...