FROM EDN EUROPE: ADI upgrades performance metrics on Sharc DSP

The latest additions to Analog Devices' Sharc DSPs are the TigerSharc TS201, 202, and 203, which run as fast as 600 MHz. ADI claims a number of leading "scores" using metrics such as performance measured against device cost, board area, and power. At 600 MHz, performance is 4.8 GMACs (billion MACs)/sec and 3.6 Gflops. Using LVDS signalling, the I/O bandwidth on the 201 part is 5 Gbytes/sec; internal bandwidth is 38.4 Gbytes/sec to the internal 24 Mbits of IBM embedded DRAM.

The core directly supports both fixed and floating-point operations, along with a set of special instructions optimised for typical tasks in communications and imaging applications. This setup, ADI says, can save the addition of external ASIC or FPGA hardware.

Multiprocessing support comes in the form of the "cluster bus," a 64- or 32-bit-wide bus that allows as many as eight processors to be closely coupled and to share a global memory map. "Link ports" handle point-to-point interprocessor communications. Devices have two or four ports, and each port can handle 500 Mbytes/sec of bidirectional traffic.

ADI says the processor, which can handle as many as 154 complex GMACs/sec, is the first to handle support-software radio concepts in cellular-base-station applications. ADI proposes an architecture for baseband processing in which an array of TS201s performs the complete processing, using the high-speed link ports to route data out to the air interface. The company claims you can have an architecture that is reconfigurable in software and upgradeable, and that exploits algorithm IP (intellectual-property) reuse.

Power consumption for the $199 (100,000) T201 (the highest performance member of the family) is 24W at 600 MHz. The $125 (100,000) 202 has 12 Mbits of DRAM and runs at 500 MHz, and the $35 (100,000) 203 has 4 Mbits and runs at 500 MHz.

Analog Devices, +32 11 300 635, www.analog.com.