New TMS320C64x(TM) DSP Delivers Lowest System Cost for High Performance Applications

"Developers of high end DSP applications continue to demand more performance at a lower price," said Will Strauss, president, Forward Concepts. "With the TMS320C6412, TI is addressing the market need, offering developers a compelling combination of high performance, rich peripherals and on-chip memory at a reasonable price."

DSP tailored for networking, telecom and high-end imaging

For networking, telecom infrastructure and high-end imaging applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), visual inspection, high-end professional still cameras and video infrastructure, the new C6412 DSP offers three aspects that make it exceptionally attractive:

   --  Affordable performance -- The C6412 DSP, an addition to the high-
       performance TMS320C6000(TM) roadmap, delivers 64 general-purpose
       32-bit registers and its eight parallel functional units can compute
       four 16-bit multiply-accumulates (MACs) per clock cycle.  TI is
       offering both a 500 and 600 MHz C6412 device at affordable price
       points.  The 500-MHz device, priced at only $39.95, achieves
       2000 million MACs (MMACs) per second, a substantial price/performance
       ratio of less than 2 cents per MMAC.  This horsepower is sufficient,
       for instance, to process up to 8X more simultaneous telecom channels
       than competitive solutions.
   --  Optimized peripheral mix -- In addition to input/output support such
       as the 64-bit external memory interface, the 64-channel enhanced
       direct memory access controller  and 16 general-purpose I/O lines,
       the C6412 also integrates a 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet MAC (EMAC).
       Typically in the $5-7 range as a separate chip, the integrated EMAC
       on the C6412 saves board space, system cost and time to market.
       Ethernet-based communications is mandatory in applications such as
       VoIP and video infrastructure networks.  The C6412 also features an
       I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) module which may be used by the DSP to
       control local peripherals or to communicate with any I2C-bus-
       compatible device.  Designers can also choose to work with an
       internal 66-MHz PCI bus interface, or a 16/32-bit Host Port Interface
       to simplify host processor connectivity.
   --  Large on-chip memory -- The device features 288Kbytes of SRAM, which
       helps handle the application requirements of sophisticated systems
       without presenting an input/output bottleneck.

The right mix of peripherals, performance, on-chip memory and price allows for system simplification and reduced requirements for external memory, which translates into fewer components, a smaller, less expensive PC board and, ultimately, a lower cost end-user product. Also, code compatibility with the C6412 and other C6000(TM) devices allows customers to not only port existing code to this new device, but also ensure they will be able to take advantage of future devices in the C6000 platform as they become available.

"Working with samples while under evaluation agreements, customers have already found the combination of features extremely attractive," said Thomas Brooks, TMS320C6000(TM) marketing manager, TI. "One early adopter designed a telecom infrastructure card using eight DSPs from a chip competitor. The customer soon discovered that as few as two C6412 DSPs could handle twice the number of channels, and by eliminating extra devices the company was able to significantly decrease the end users' cost per channel."

Tools for fast design-ins

Engineers can immediately evaluate their design with this new DSP thanks to the TMS320C6416 DSP Starter Kit (DSK). It contains a development board with 512K-Bytes of Flash, 16M-Bytes of SDRAM, the Code Composer Studio(TM) (CCStudio) Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a USB cable for attaching to a host PC.

The C6412 DSP is supported by TI's eXpressDSP(TM) software and development tools, including CCStudio IDE, the industry's most easy-to-use DSP IDE, and the DSP/BIOS(TM) real-time kernel. TI's library of DSP and imaging software modules, best-in-class software development tools and eXpressDSP-compliant application-specific software from the DSP industry's largest third party network all add up to faster time to market for the designers of affordable high-performance applications.

Pricing and Availability

TI is currently sampling the TMS320C6412, available in both 500 and 600 MHz clock speeds, with production scheduled for 2Q04. Pricing starts at $39.95 for 10 KU at 500 MHz. The C6416 DSK is also available today for $395 (see http://www.ti.com/c6000dsksp ).

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/ .

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