30 June 2009

TI DSPs - Low Flow Float Point & Wide Connectivity Options

Texas Instruments (TI) has unveiled four processors which have been designed to provide power efficiency and broad connectivity options for smarter, greener industrial and communications devices.

With a combination of application-tuned features and peripherals, these devices reduce overall system cost for a wide range of products including industrial, communications, medical diagnostics and audio, according to TI. For applications that need high-speed data transfer and high-capacity storage, such as test and measurement, public safety radios, music effects and intelligent occupancy sensors, the processors feature a universal parallel port (uPP) and are also the first TI devices with an integrated Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA).

With performance levels up to 300 MHz, these products offer the ability to manage on-chip power through dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) and multiple power down modes. When coupled with TI power management software and complementary analog solutions, developers can optimize their system for performance and power without having to be an energy expert, according to TI.
The C6742, C6746 and C6748 DSP include lowest-cost and lowest-power C6000 processors and industry's lowest-power floating-point DSPs with 7mW of standby power at 1.0V/25 degrees C and 420mW total power in use case scenarios, TI said, with standby power up to nine times lower than existing floating-point DSP solutions on market . It is also the first TI processor offering with an integrated SATA for high-capacity data storage. Video port interface provides the ability to input/output raw video while a LCD controller allows developers to easily connect video graphics array (VGA) resolution displays.

The OMAP-L138 Dual-core processor builds on the C6748 DSP with a 300 MHz ARM9 gives developers the flexibility to add intuitive human machine interfaces, touch screens or networking capability to their applications, TI said. The ARM9 also allows developers to implement high-level operating systems, such as Linux . TI said Windows Embedded CE and Integrity support is slated for fourth quarter 2009.