| TI rolls out highly integrated dual-core (RISC+DSP) SOC |
Dec. 10, 2001
Texas Instruments (TI) today launched its first general purpose dual-core (RISC+DSP) processors. The new devices, designated the TMS320C5471 and TMS320C5470, are highly integrated "system-on-chip" processors which combine, on a single die, TI's highly popular TMS320C5000 DSP along with an ARM7 Thumb based RISC processor plus an extensive set of system and peripheral controllers, including a 10/100 megabit Ethernet port.
Previous TI dual-core processors targeted niche applications, such as digital cameras. "This new offering is the first catalog product for the general purpose application-agnostic connected embedded marketplace" explained Dennis Barrett, product marketing manager for TI's C5000 DSP product line.
Considering the expanding role played by digital signal processing in most new electronic gadgets of all shapes and sizes, the new TI dual-core processors are likely to be a big hit with developers. The TMS320C547x's built-in DSP is used for offloading various low-level and real-time tasks from the device's ARM7 "host" processor. Applications delegated to the built-in DSP are expected to include wireless communications, handwriting recognition, text-to-speech, voice recognition, data acquisition and control, and pre/post audio processing. Doing this frees up the chip's internal ARM7 processor to manage the overall application and focus on computer-like tasks such as TCP/IP connectivity, data storage, database processing, and the user interface.
Another aspect of the new dual-core processor family that TI expects to be popular among developers, according to Barrett, is the comprehensive Embedded Linux host and target development support. "We're excited to bring out a Linux-based offering to accelerate time-to-market," commented Barrett. Indeed, TI's announcement of the new devices identifies Embedded Linux as "the most requested embedded operating systems on the market today."
"Embedded Linux represents a very popular multi-supported operating system with thousands of available software components," added Barrett. "Linux has what it takes to displace home grown, in-house, proprietary operating systems. We have anecdotal inputs that Embedded Linux is going to win as many as two-thirds of all new ARM-based designs over the next 18 months," said Barrett. Although RidgeRun's DSPLinux Embedded Linux is initially the only target operating system supported on the TMS320C547x, Wind River's VxWorks and Accelerated Technology's Nucleus PLUS RTOSes will be added later.
According to Rick Seger, Ridgerun VP of Sales, DSPLinux makes it easy for Linux programmers to take advantage of the TMS320C547x's built-in DSP, and releaves them from having to learn to manage or program the DSP functions directly. To accomplish this, DSPLinux provides an API interface to TI's DSP/BIOS, which runs on the DSP side of the processor and can take advantage of hundreds of TI-qualified DSP "algorithms" that are available through TI's third-party partners program. These include functions for audio, DAB / DVB, encryption, FAX, fingerprint, GPS, GSM / CDMA, imaging, Java, music, noise cancellation, speech recognition, speech synthesis, telephony, video, and vocoders.
To simplify and accelerate the development of products based on the new dual-core chips, TI has created a hardware/software "Development Bundle" for the TMS320C547x which includes . . . - The C5471 evaluation board (manufactured by Spectrum Digital), which provides a working board-level design based on the TMS320C5471
- RidgeRun's DSPLinux Embedded Linux toolkit, which includes an Embedded Linux OS, compiler, and RidgeRun's graphical Code Composer Studio, plus various tools and utilities for the TMS320C547x
- TI's DSP/BIOS
The TMS320C5471 and TMS320C5470 are immediately available in production quantities and are priced at $17.57 and $15.50, respectively, in 10,000-unit volumes. The Development Bundle is priced at $8999 and will begin shipping in January, 2002.
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