CMP Media and BDTI are pleased to introduce Inside[DSP], an innovative new series of periodic supplements to EE Times.

Each Inside[DSP] supplement will focus on the digital signal-processing technology behind a particular end-equipment market. These will include product categories such as consumer audio and video, mobile multimedia devices, automotive signal-processing applications, and communications equipment.

Last month ParthusCEVA, Inc. announced it would change its name to CEVA, Inc. Along with the name change, the company is shifting its focus to providing signal-processing application solutions based on its DSP cores. These moves come as part of a series of changes for the company, which was formed about a year ago by the merger of Parthus Technologies with the DSP core licensing division of DSP Group.

Today Analog Devices announced four new members of its SHARC family. These new chips primarily target audio applications, and have a variety of audio-specific peripherals and I/O ports. The new chips include the ADSP-21266, ’21267, ’21364, and ’21365.

As we approach year-end, it seems fitting to look back at developments and trends in DSP processors. And it’s an opportune time to do so, since my colleagues and I just completed the latest iteration of our exhaustive (and exhausting) study of leading DSPs. It has been three years since we published the previous edition, and in reviewing the new version I am struck by one of the key changes in our industry.

Last month StarCore announced that it is offering two DSP cores for license. StarCore, originally formed in 1999 as a joint design center for Agere and Motorola, introduced the SC140 DSP core in 2000. The SC140 has since been used in chips from Motorola, but has not been available for license by other companies. Last year, StarCore made major changes to its business model (see DSP Insider, July 2002), and announced its intention to begin licensing DSP cores.

At the Microprocessor Forum last month, Renesas and SuperH debuted the latest processor in the SuperH family, the SH-X. The SH-X is a synthesizable 32-bit fixed-point CPU core that is object-code compatible with its 32-bit predecessors, which include the SH-3, SH3-DSP, and SH-4. Renesas expects to begin shipping SH-X-based chips in early 2004. It is not yet clear whether the core will be available for license; SuperH Inc., which is responsible for SuperH core licensing activities, did not announce any licensing plans at MPF.

At last month’s Microprocessor Forum, Sun Microsystems CTO Greg Papadopoulos predicted that microprocessors as we know them will disappear by 2010. In his view, microprocessors will continue to absorb surrounding chips until the entire computer is contained in a single chip. This prediction reminded me of claims by Texas Instruments that cell phones will soon contain nothing more than a single chip and a handful of passive components.

With gasoline prices wildly fluctuating in the United States, car buyers are paying increased attention to fuel efficiency. And fuel efficiency seems easy to determine: new cars come plastered with enormous stickers proclaiming their EPA-rated fuel efficiency. However, environmentalists are quick to point out that these EPA ratings are only loosely related to real-world fuel efficiency. The EPA admits as much, adding small print that reads “your mileage may vary.”