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TI debuts products for scalable, wireless and embedded comms
By Patrick Mannion
EE Times
(05/08/01, 7:52 p.m. EST)




MANHASSET, N.Y. — Texas Instruments Inc. has done some heavy lifting to further its advance on scalable, wireless and embedded communications. The company has piled on two low-power DSPs, a high-speed cable modem headend solution that's said to yield a 50 percent increase in upstream data rates, wireless security additions to its Open Multimedia Applications Platform (Omap), Omap extensions for Symbian's Epoc operating system and a C6000-based TCP/IP stack for embedded applications.

The low-power DSPs target cost-sensitive portable Internet devices and are the second and third entries in the TMS320-C55x line, introduced last year. The low-cost 5502 weighs in at 400 Mips and costs $9.95 each in quantities of 10,000. The highly integrated 5509 targets general-purpose applications with a host of on-board functions and interfaces.

''We found our first chip in the C55x line, the C5510, wasn't meeting customers' demands for low power and high performance at low cost,'' said Dennis Barrett, product-marketing manager for the C5000 line.

The C5502 is best compared to TI's C5402. Introduced in 1999, that chip offered 100 Mips and 0.6 milliwatt/Mips. The C5502 comes in at 400 Mips and 0.22 mW/Mips.

Although the new chip won't be available until the first quarter, Barrett cited the similarities between the C5502 and C5510. ''Programmers can get going on designs for the C5502 right away using the C5510-based DSP evaluation module and then just replace the C5510 with the C5502 next year,'' he said.

On top of the base 55x core, the chip features 16 kwords of ROM, 32 kwords of dual-access RAM, a 32-bit external interface for 400-Mbit/s I/O communication, three multichannel buffered serial ports and 76 general-purpose I/O lines (eight dedicated). It comes in a 176-pin, 24 x 24-mm package.

The C5509 cuts power consumption in both wired and portable applications. Included on board are a USB 1.1 port; a 10-bit, 500-microsecond analog-to-digital converter; a real-time clock; MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital and Memory Stick serial ports; three timers; 32 kwords of direct-access RAM and 96 kwords of single-access RAM.

Available in 140- or 200-MHz (100-mW) versions, the chip is supported by an evaluation offering that will be available in June for $995 through Spectrum Digital. The chip itself will be available in the first quarter of 2002 at $18 each per 10,000.

TI has also announced Omap-based multimedia extensions that can be used with Symbian's software development kits, as well as a slew of security algorithms through partnerships with SafeNet, Ntru, WhiteCell, SnapShield and AuthenTec.

The Symbian Epoc plug-ins target developers designing real-time applications such as multimedia messaging, video and Internet audio, letting them take advantage of the multimedia capability in the Symbian software platform with the goal of accelerating multimedia capabilities for 2.5G and 3G applications. The extensions allow developers to use high-level application programming interfaces that provide seamless access to optimized DSP algorithms.

The company is offering an MPEG-4 decoding API extension for the Symbian C++ software development kit and is scheduled to follow up with speech and audio API extensions in the third quarter.

Devices based on the combination of Symbian's technology and TI's Omap architecture are due to ship in the second half.

The wireless security algorithms tackle a major hurdle to mobile commerce, according to David Potts, Omap worldwide applications and mobile-commerce manager. Key components include memory protection, advanced public and private key encryption, virus screening, firewall protection and fingerprint recognition.

To yield the touted 50 percent increase in upstream cable data rates, meanwhile, TI incorporated advanced time-division multiple-access technology into a dual-channel receiver for cable headend applications (TNETC4522) and a newly certified device at the customer premises (TNETC4042). Both use TI's patented Inca (increased-capacity ingress cancellation) noise-cancellation technology. The features will let multiple service operators offer symmetric services such as voice, multisession videoconferencing and peer-to-peer networking.

The C4522 dual receiver increases the upstream data rates by using 64-QAM modulation instead of the QPSK or 16-QAM being used upstream today.

TI rounded off the flurry of introductions with a TCP/IP stack for its C6000 line of DSPs for embedded applications. The programmable stack avoids the need for an external chip to perform network interfacing. It is claimed to be fully standards-compliant and is available now on a 150-MHz, C6711-based evaluation board, which comes with a Macronix Ethernet MAC/PHY.


http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010508S0076