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This month:
Infineon Joins StarCore PartnershipOn June 18th, Agere, Motorola, and Infineon announced that they would be teaming up to form a new company, StarCore LLC. StarCore LLC will be based on the earlier Agere/Motorola joint design center, StarCore, but with some notable differences. One difference is that, unlike the earlier alliance, StarCore LLC will be a distinct business entity separate from its parent companies. All three partners will have equal ownership in the new company, which will be headquartered in Austin, Texas. The partners expect the company to commence operations in late summer of 2002, subject to regulatory approval. StarCore LLC's charter is to develop DSP cores and license them to semiconductor vendors and OEMs. This is a business model with which Infineon already has experience, having developed the Carmel DSP core and then offered it to potential licensees. It's a big change for StarCore, however; the DSP cores developed as part of the original StarCore partnership were intended to be used only by Agere and Motorola in their own products and were not available for license by others. Not surprisingly, Agere, Motorola, and Infineon will be the initial core licensees, providing a built-in market for the new company's products. The StarCore alliance was formed in 1998 and has two cores in its portfolio: the high-performance quad-MAC SC140 (currently available in products from Motorola and Agere) and the low-power single-MAC SC110 (which has never been fabricated). Both cores are specific implementations of StarCore's scalable SC100 instruction set architecture. StarCore LLC will make the two cores available for license and will also offer complementary IP blocks, such as DMA controllers, and provide a range of design services. Infineon's Carmel core will not be part of StarCore's offerings, however; the partners say that Carmel will be phased out, but that some of its features may work their way into future StarCore architectures.
BDTI has evaluated the SC140, SC110, and Carmel cores. All three are
solid, competent architectures, each with its own unique advantages
(see http://www.BDTI.com for BDTImark2000™ scores for these
processors). Even good architectures struggle for market acceptance,
however, and often sink or swim based on considerations other than
their technological merits. With Carmel, Infineon was never able to
achieve a broad base of licensees, and it appears that the SC110 has
been ignored by its own developers. With the formation of StarCore
LLC, perhaps at least the SC100 will have a shot at widespread
adoption.
ARM11's DSP Strengths RevealedARM unveiled the ARM11, the first core to implement the ARMv6 instruction set, at the recent Embedded Processor Forum. The ARM11 contains a number of features that should prove particularly useful for DSP applications. The most prominent of these features are the new dual-16-bit multiply-accumulate (MAC) instructions. DSP algorithms typically make heavy use of MAC operations, so these instructions will likely give the ARM11 a major performance boost over its single-MAC predecessors. The ARM11 also features new dual-16-bit add and subtract instructions that will likely prove useful for DSP algorithms like the FFT. Although the new MAC operations are important, efficient MAC operations by themselves do not guarantee high DSP performance. For example, a comparison of BDTI Benchmark™ results shows that a 200 MHz ARM ARM9E is about 20% slower than a 160 MHz Texas Instruments TMS320C54xx on typical DSP tasks, even though both processors can perform one MAC per cycle. (See http://www.BDTI.com for these results.) The ARM9E is slower than the 'C54xx largely because the ARM9E lacks the zero-overhead loop structures found on the 'C54xx. Instead, the ARM9E implements loops with multi-cycle conditional branches. The ARM11 should fare much better in this respect: it contains branch prediction features that should greatly reduce loop overhead. This branch prediction scheme, which was introduced on the ARM10, reduces the branch latency to zero cycles for the most common cases. Another important ARM11 feature carried over from the ARM10 is the parallel load/store unit. This feature allow computation to continue while data transfers complete; for example, the ARM11 can initiate a multi-cycle “load multiple registers” instruction and then continue computation in parallel with the load operations. The ARM11 also features a 64-bit data bus like that on the ARM10, rather than the 32-bit bus used on older ARM cores. Together, these improvements will bring the ARM11 data transfer capabilities much closer to those of a typical DSP—and since DSP applications are notoriously data-hungry, these capabilities should greatly improve DSP performance. ARM cores have long competed with DSPs for applications like portable MP3 players that require only modest DSP performance. By giving the ARM11 serious DSP capabilities, ARM has made it clear that it has designs on a much broader range of DSP applications.
According to ARM, the ARM11 will be available for license in the
fourth quarter of 2002.
BDTI Case Study
This Month: Making the SwitchAs markets for DSP applications continue to expand, increasing numbers of equipment manufacturers and technology providers are turning their attention to DSP. In doing so, these companies often discover that DSP technology requires new skills and knowledge. For example, salespeople may need to determine whether customer applications call for a specialized DSP processor, a general-purpose processor, or some other solution. Unless the sales staff clearly understands the needs of DSP applications and the advantages of each solution, they may waste valuable time and make poor recommendations. Sales, marketing, and management are much more effective when armed with insights and analysis on DSP technology, trends, and the competitive environment. The move to DSP applications also demands unique engineering skills. There is a broad spectrum of DSP technologies, and radically different technologies often target the same DSP applications. Equipment designers who are unfamiliar with the options find it difficult to compare solutions—and may overlook the best option for their application. Similarly, processor developers who want to add DSP features to their products often find it difficult to stay on top of the diverse, rapidly shifting requirements of DSP applications. As in nature, adaptation is a key to success in the face of business changes. BDTI offers seminars that have helped numerous companies transform themselves to take on new DSP applications. These seminars provide unique insights from BDTI's 10 years of DSP technology analysis and hands-on experience with a wide range of DSP technology. In one recent example, a vendor of embedded software tools engaged BDTI's services to explore the market for a recently acquired line of DSP products. BDTI helped this company refine their marketing efforts through an on-site seminar as well as an in-depth question-and-answer session. BDTI currently offers five one-day seminars for on-line or on-site delivery:
Top
Impulse Response, by Jeff Bier
I Want My VoDOver the years, futurists have made technology predictions that seem ridiculous in retrospect. Even brilliant, serious thinkers promised us hover cars and space colonies that have yet to pan out; what went wrong? In many cases, the technology was available, but there was no business case for the predicted advances. Sure, we can colonize the moon—if somebody is willing to foot the bill. Consider the fate of streaming video: we have the technologies to make high-quality, on-demand video a reality, yet such services are still in incubation. The easiest way to get a movie online today is through services like NetFlix, which deliver movies via decidedly low-tech “snail mail.” Why aren't we all watching streaming video by now? One major stumbling block is the lack of connections. According to a recent study by the FCC, only about 7% of U.S. households have broadband subscriptions. The primary barrier to penetration is usually seen as cost: the FCC cited surveys that found consumers wanted high-speed Internet access, just not at today's rates. However, this argument flies in the face of logic; many of these same consumers shell out similar fees for cable TV. Perhaps the problem with streaming video isn't in the price of the connection, but the lack of compelling content. Indeed, content remains pitifully limited. This is hardly surprising: content providers like movie studios have little incentive to invest in streaming media when there are few widely deployed revenue-collection mechanisms. And these mechanisms are not likely to evolve until key players, particularly those in Hollywood, resolve the uncertainty over copyright issues and content protection. This is unfortunate; while Hollywood understandably wants to prevent Napster-style renegades from siphoning revenue away from legitimate sources, the current quagmire prevents those legitimate sources from developing in the first place.
We engineers are prone to thinking that if we build a better widget,
the world will beat a path to our door. But the reality for most of
us is that good technology is at best an important component of a
successful product. We have to engineer not only the technology, but
also an “ecosystem” that makes economic sense.
Gearing up for eCommerceEven though the bubble has burst and the eCommerce wave has broken, BDTI is getting ready to enter the world of online commerce. In the next few months, BDTI will roll out online access to its training seminars, via streaming media. Stay tuned!
To receive notice of BDTI's online training, as well as other new
services, register for Web updates via our home page at
http://www.BDTI.com.
New Products and Services from BDTI
“Sounding Board”BDTI's “Sounding Board” service helps vendors of DSP-related products—chips, cores, tools, and software—develop accurate and compelling marketing presentations. BDTI's expert analysts will review your presentation, host a Q&A session, and give you specific, detailed suggestions for improvement. BDTI's experience in DSP product development, analysis, and reporting will help you achieve technical accuracy and ensure your message has the right focus for the target audience.
BDTI Compiler EvaluationBaffled by competing vendor claims of compiler efficiency for DSP application development? BDTI has developed a methodology to assess the quantitative and qualitative merits of C compilers for DSP applications. Developed over several years, BDTI's C compiler evaluation methodology is ready for commercial roll-out. BDTI welcomes a small number of early participants in a multi-client study. Interested parties, processor vendors, and compiler vendors should contact Jeremy Giddings at BDTI (giddings@BDTI.com) for further information.
“FPGAs for DSP”—BDTI Technology AnalysisIn the first volume of BDTI's “Focus” series of technology analysis reports, BDTI examines the use of FPGAs in digital signal processing applications. “FPGAs for DSP” evaluates the latest DSP enhancements available on FPGAs and explains why FPGAs are a practical solution for some DSP applications.
“FPGAs for DSP” is scheduled for publication this summer. For more
information on BDTI “Focus” reports, go to
http://www.BDTI.com/products/reports_focus.html.
Revised BDTImark20000™ for the LSI Logic ZSP400BDTI has released a revised BDTImark2000 score for the LSI Logic ZSP400. For this score, as well as BDTImark2000 and BDTIsimMark2000 scores for other processors, go to http://www.BDTI.com/bdtimark/BDTImark2000.htm.
The BDTImark2000 is a summary measure of DSP speed distilled from a
suite of DSP benchmarks developed and independently verified by BDTI.
About BDTIBDTI is an independent source for DSP technology analysis and optimized DSP software. From rigorous technical analyses of processors for DSP, such as the “Inside” series of processor analyses, to highly regarded technology training classes, BDTI is the trusted independent source for reliable information on DSP technology.
For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.BDTI.com.
The next issue of BDTI's “DSP Insider” is coming in August. Previous issues of BDTI's “DSP Insider” are archived on BDTI's Web site. Follow the link from http://www.BDTI.com/dspinsider/dspinsider.html. If you have comments, suggestions, or other feedback about the “DSP Insider,” please send email to dspinsider@BDTI.com. BDTI's DSP Insider is a free monthly electronic newsletter published by Berkeley Design Technology, Inc. If our newsletter was forwarded to you and you would like to receive it regularly, please register at http://www.BDTI.com/dspinsider/dspinsider.html.
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