InsideDSP — In-depth analysis and opinion

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Embedded Processor Wars

For a while there, it seemed as though DSP processors and general-purpose processors (GPPs) were morphing into one another. In an effort to provide better DSP performance, general-purpose processors (GPPs) were incorporating increasingly powerful DSP-oriented features. Meanwhile, as digital signal processing applications got more complex, DSP processors were becoming more CPU-like to enable efficient compilers and support more elaborate operating systems. It was getting hard to tell the DSPs Read more...

Case Study—BDTI Benchmarks Help Vendors Win New Customers

Smaller fabless chip vendors face an uphill battle: to beat out larger rivals, they must attract the attention of potential customers, prove the advantages of their products, and demonstrate that they will be reliable, long-term partners.  One such company recently used BDTI Benchmarks to accomplish all three of these objectives. This fabless chip vendor sells chips for wireless infrastructure applications.  In these applications, the obstacles for small companies are more challenging than Read more...

Evaluating the DSP Capabilities of the Cortex-R4

In 2004, ARM announced its newest generation of licensable cores, called the “Cortex” family.  Cortex cores span a wide range of performance levels, with Cortex M-series cores at the low end, Cortex R-series cores providing mid-range performance, and the Cortex A-series applications processors offering the highest performance.  The first Cortex core to be announced was the Cortex-M3, and since then ARM has announced several others, including the Cortex-A8 and A9, the Cortex-M1, and the Cortex- Read more...

Qualcomm Reveals Details on Scorpion Core

Back in 2005, Qualcomm announced that it had licensed the ARMv7 instruction set architecture and was working with ARM to create its own high-performance core based on that architecture. The new core was dubbed “Scorpion,” and at the time it was announced, Qualcomm didn’t disclose much about it except that it would run at 1 GHz in a 65 nm process and would be customized to provide a high level of performance and energy efficiency in its target mobile applications. Exactly how this combination Read more...

Avnera releases ASSPs for wireless audio applications

Avnera has released a set of application-specific standard product (ASSP) chips aimed at the audio market.  Avnera’s chips, implemented in CMOS, transmit and receive stereo audio (close to CD quality) over the 2.4 GHz wireless ISM band assigned internationally for industrial, scientific and medical uses.   Avnera claims a typical range of 45 feet, with longer range if an optional external power amplifier is used. Figure 1.  Avnera implements wireless audio with a transmitter chip and a Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Fried Fahrvergnügen

Do you ever look at a piece of hardware and wonder, “Why, oh why, did they build it like that?”  This is what I’m thinking as I look at my 2001 Volkswagen Passat, a car that is now completely dysfunctional because of an unfortunate (yet easily foreseen) intersection of water and electronic circuitry.  Let me explain. The car has a sunroof, and the sunroof has two gutters and tubes that route rainwater through the body of the car and dump it outside. But like all gutters, they can get plugged Read more...

Case Study—Optimizing Presentations, Products, and Plans

The best way to ensure that a presentation is effective is to test it with a knowledgeable, critical, and responsive audience. A test audience can also help ensure that the content is correct, relevant, and appropriate for the intended audience. Just as important, a test audience can help presenters gauge the clarity, appeal, and impact of their pitch. After all, superb technical content serves no purpose if the audience loses interest a few minutes into the presentation. BDTI analysts can Read more...

MATLAB-to-C: Are Embedded Programmers Now Obsolete?

Earlier this month The Mathworks announced embedded C code generation capability for its popular MATLAB tool, which is widely used for digital signal processing algorithm design. According to The Mathworks, the new Embedded MATLAB capability is intended to enable MATLAB users to generate efficient C code directly from MATLAB source code files for use in embedded applications. Embedded MATLAB supports a subset of the MATLAB M language. It also supports a subset of the mathematical functions Read more...

ARM Extends Multi-Core Strategy with Cortex-A9

ARM recently announced the Cortex-A9, a high-performance licensable application processor that extends ARM’s push into the multi-core arena. The Cortex-A9 provides support for multi-core implementations via ARM’s “MPCore” technology, which includes hardware for maintaining cache coherency and managing memory transfers. MPCore can be used with up to four Cortex-A9 cores in a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) configuration. The Cortex-A9 is also available as a single processor (i.e., without the Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response: When Worlds Collide

When I was a kid, 10,000 lines of code was considered a decent-sized application. Now, it seems, we’re on the verge of seeing applications with 10,000 threads. Or at least, that’s what graphics chip maker Nvidia is envisioning. Nvidia recently announced the Tesla product family, which includes a chip with 128 processors and hardware support for execution of thousands of threads. Like other Nvidia chips, Tesla is a graphics processing unit (GPU), but this new chip is not really targeting Read more...