InsideDSP — In-depth analysis and opinion

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—MPEG? No, Thanks.

Microsoft and Real Networks must be thrilled. This February, Apple immediately followed the unveiling of its QuickTime 6 media player and QuickTime Broadcaster with an announcement that these products were on hold indefinitely. At issue were the proposed licensing terms for MPEG-4 video, a key component of these products. These licensing terms, announced in February, require content providers to pay a royalty for every second of MPEG-4 video downloaded, streamed over a network, or distributed Read more...

TI's OMAP Lands in Palm

On December 17, 2001 Palm and Texas Instruments announced that Palm will base a set of next-generation handheld computers on TI's OMAP processor platform, which combines an ARM ARM9 microprocessor core with TI's 'C55xx DSP core. This announcement came as part of a agreement between the two companies that covers everything from collaboration on product development to joint marketing. Palm expects to introduce OMAP-based handheld computers in about one year. Palm had previously announced that Read more...

Lexra's IP Business: Another One Bites the Dust

On December 31, 2001, MIPS announced that it was dropping its patent-infringement lawsuit against Lexra as part of an agreement between the two companies. As part of this agreement, Lexra will assign its processor IP assets to MIPS and become a MIPS32 licensee. This announcement spells the end of Lexra's DSP-enhanced licensable core: Lexra is exiting the IP business and becoming a fabless semiconductor company focused on network processors. In its lawsuit, filed in November 1999, MIPS Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—C-ing the Future of Hardware Design

At one time, most DSP applications were powered either by instruction-set processors or by application-specific fixed-function chips. There was a clear distinction between these two types of solutions and clear differences in the associated design methodologies: processors required software development, while ASICs required hardware design. Today, the line between hardware and software has been blurred, particularly with flexible architectures that combine instruction-set processors with Read more...

ARM9E Shows Surprising Speed

Last month, BDTI published the first independent, in-depth report to evaluate the ARM7, ARM9, and ARM9E processor cores. The ARM7 and ARM9 were not designed with the needs of DSP in mind, and these processors have no DSP-oriented features. Not surprisingly, BDTI's analysis shows that the ARM7 and ARM9 are not nearly as fast as mainstream DSP processors; for example, the 160 MHz Texas Instruments TMS320C54xx is about two times faster on DSP tasks than the 200 MHz ARM9. The ARM9E—an ARM9 with Read more...

New BDTIsimMark2000™ Measures Pre-Silicon DSP Speed

Processor users often want a simplified way of comparing processors' speeds in DSP applications. To this end, BDTI publishes the BDTImark2000™, a single-number DSP speed metric based on BDTI's suite of DSP benchmarks, the BDTI Benchmarks™. Because it is based on realistic DSP algorithm kernel benchmarks, the BDTImark2000 characterizes a processor's signal processing speed far more accurately than traditional simplified measures such as MIPS or MFLOPS. BDTI's policy is to verify its Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Education Fuels Technological Competitiveness

In tough times, technology companies often curtail research and development of new technologies and products. Too often, such cutbacks are penny-wise and pound-foolish: while they reduce expenses in the short term, they may also seriously damage a company's ability to compete in the long term. Sadly, this kind of shortsightedness can also be seen in the United States' education funding policies. In response to shortfalls caused by the current downturn, states are slashing education spending Read more...

Blackfin Gets BDTImark2000™, New Family Member

Analog Devices announced general sampling of the ADSP-21535 "Blackfin" DSP on September 28. The ADSP-21535 is the first processor based on the Micro Signal Architecture (MSA) jointly developed by Analog Devices and Intel. The ADSP-21535 is a 16-bit fixed-point DSP that features two MAC units and support for a range of 8- and 16-bit SIMD operations. The ADSP-21535 also features "Dynamic Power Management," which allows a single processor to operate over a range of clock speeds and operating Read more...

‘C67xx Gets Speed Boost, New Peripherals

On December 3, Texas Instruments announced three new members of its TMS320C67xx family of floating-point processors. The TMS320C6713, which is projected to operate at 225 MHz, will be the fastest of these new processors. According to BDTI's analysis, the 225 MHz 'C6713 will be about two times faster than its main competitor, Analog Devices' 100 MHz ADSP-21161. The 'C6713 will contain a number of peripherals that target high-end audio applications. For example, the 'C6713 contains two " Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—DSPs—A Dying Breed?

At the Microprocessor Forum in October, ARM unveiled the next version of its instruction set, ARMv6, which all future ARM cores will support. The ARMv6 instruction set is the first from ARM to include extensive DSP-oriented instructions. Particularly interesting is the inclusion of a sum-of-absolute-differences instruction, a rather specialized instruction that is useful mainly for video compression algorithms. Historically, ARM has found success in low-cost, high-volume applications by Read more...