Processors up performance and lower costs

Analog Devices is expanding the Blackfin processor family with three new devices that are now available for sampling and operate as fast as 600 MHz or sell for as low as $5.95 for a 300-MHz device. The dual-16-bit-MAC (multiply-accumulate)-unit ADSP-BF531, ADSP-BF532, and ADSP-BF533 devices are pin-for-pin and code compatible and include a glueless, 27-MHz ITU-R 656 video-converter interface with support from a 2-D DMA engine. They all provide a general-purpose parallel ADC/DAC interface supporting as many as 65M samples/sec. The devices integrate an on-chip switching regulator that enables programmable control of the core voltage, from 0.7V to 1.2V, from a single I/O supply. This feature, along with the Blackfin's dynamic power management, allows simultaneous adjustment of the operating frequency and the voltage and enables a power consumption of 280 mW when the processor is operating at 600 MHz.

The devices include 52 to 148 kbytes of on-chip SRAM and cache. The ADSP-BF533 includes two dedicated serial ports that support as many as eight channels of I²S audio and an external bus-interface unit that supports as much as 128 Mbytes of SDRAM and 4 Mbytes of asynchronous memory. The ADSP-BF533 is available in a 160-ball mini-BGA package as a 500- or 600-MHz device for $16.95 and $19.95 (10,000), respectively. The ADSP-BF531 and ADSP-BF532 include 32 kbytes of on-chip ROM and are available in 160-ball mini-BGA packages and 176-lead LQFPs. Both versions of the ADSP-BF532 operate at 400 MHz and are available for $9.95 (10,000). The Mini-BGA version of the ADSP-BF531 operates at 400 MHz and costs $5.95 (10,000). A lower cost LQFP version of the ADSP-BF531 will operate at 300 MHz, but, unlike the other devices, which are now available for sampling, will become available for sampling in the third quarter. Evaluation and emulation systems are available for hardware development.

Analog Devices, 1-800-262-5643, www.analog.com.