If you can't beat 'em ...

For the past few weeks, I’ve been on a rant both here and on the Open Architecture Review site, suggesting that DSP processors were all but eliminated by the FPGA. Honest, I wasn’t trying to make Texas Instruments Inc. look bad, it’s just that the TMS320 architecture looked so vulnerable. But TI is far too smart and powerful a company to get involved in any rear-guard actions suggesting that FPGAs weren’t up to speed in signal processing algorithms.

Instead, TI has taken the wise approach of using its mixed-signal and power-control advantages to be an FPGA’s best friend. We can see it in the dedicated effort to marry its Fusion Power Controllers to the Virtex-6 architecture from Xilinx. Now, obviously, the battle between TMS320 and ADI Sharc in one corner, vs. Xilinx, Altera, Actel, and Lattice in the other, is far from over. But why let disputes in DSP scotch the benefits to be had from playing nice on the power management and analog interface fronts?

TI is wise to work with Xilinx on a joint evaluation kit and power design tools optimized for the UCD9240. This also underscores the fact that TI will be spending a lot of time in months to come emphasizing its analog strengths. No sense looking for a fight.