TI debuts multicore DSPs and base-station SOC

Built with multiple 1.25-GHz DSP cores, the new DSPs, according to Ramesh Kumar, TI's worldwide business manager for multicore and media infrastructure DSP, are the industry's first 10-GHz DSPs with 320 GMACS and 160 GFLOPS of combined fixed- and floating-point performance on a single device.

By Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- EDN, November 9, 2010

MUNICH, GERMANY -- Texas Instruments at Electronica is reaffirming its commitment to in the high-performance embedded processing space with the introduction of the TMS320C66x fixed- and floating-point DSP (digital signal processor) cores plus four new scalable C667x multicore DSP devices.

Built with multiple 1.25-GHz DSP cores, the new DSPs, according to Ramesh Kumar, TI's worldwide business manager for multicore and media infrastructure DSP, are the industry's first 10-GHz DSPs with 320 GMACS and 160 GFLOPS of combined fixed- and floating-point performance on a single device. The C667x DSP family is based on TI's new KeyStone multicore architecture, designed to maximize the throughput of on-chip data flows and eliminate the possibility of bottlenecks, so that developers can fully utilize the processing power of the DSP cores.

TI is also introducing a wireless base station system-on-chip with 4G class performance. Built as a wireless data engine from its inception, the new TMS320TCI6616 base-station SOC is based on the new TMS320C66x DSPs and KeyStone multicore architecture. The TCI6616 also performs both fixed- and floating-point math.

The C667x DSP family includes three pin compatible multicore DSPs in two-, four-, and eight-core versions, the TMS320C6672, TMS320C6674, and TMS320C6678 respectively, as well as a four-core communications SOC, the TMS320C6670. Using TI's C667x multicore DSPs, infrastructure developers can now more easily design integrated, software-upgradeable, power- and cost-efficient platforms in mission-critical markets involving public safety and defense, medical and high-end imaging, test and automation, high-performance computing, smart grids, and core networking.

Kumar singled out advanced imaging products for wafer inspection, LCD inspection, solar-cell inspection, smart cameras for factory automation, ultrasound systems, and industrial microscopes as key targets for the new multicore devices. In the test and measurement area, he highlighted vector signal analyzers, spectrum analyzers, vector signal generators, base-station analyzers, A/V quality testers, impairment generators, mobile-phone service testers, and traffic generators and analyzers as instruments that could employ the new multicore DSPs.

TI also offers a multicore software developer's kit (MC-SDK) and suite of multicore tools, as well as an ecosystem based on software and hardware partners. The new C667x multicore DSPs are also software compatible with TI's existing C6000 DSPs, enabling vendors to reuse their existing software.

As for the base-station SOC, TI developed the TCI6616 SOC to incorporate three elements: field-proven PHY technology, an autonomous packet-processing engine, and programmable DSPs. Implemented as configurable coprocessors, TI PHYs enable software-defined radio (SDR), which allows operators to rationally migrate to emerging standards without needing external components. Autonomous packet processing in the TCI6616 manages packets from both core and radio networks, offloading packet processing and freeing cycles for algorithms that enhance spectral efficiency. The autonomous operation of the packet coprocessors.