As developers look at their next designs for medical, audio, industrial and emerging applications, there is greater demand for portability with superior features, such as a consumer-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The balance between power and performance of a processor has traditionally meant trading off one or the other; now that is no longer the case. Giving engineers the scalable solutions they need to design both basic and feature-laden portable end products, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) recently introduced its breakthrough low-power processor roadmap with more than 15 new devices across four product lines.
The types of products that benefit most from very low power fall into three general power budget categories. First are those that draw current from a low power source, such as a USB port. Next are devices where consumers expect batteries to last an entire work day, and the third category includes devices that consumers expect to function for two or more weeks without a battery change. Throughout the next 12 months, TI will offer an embedded processor solution for each of these power categories with more than 15 new devices within four product lines.
· Low power and high precision with new TMS320C674x DSPs: For the first time, developers will have the ability to bring portability to audio, medical, industrial and other applications requiring the precision, wide dynamic range and time-to-market benefits of floating-point DSPs. Using three times less power than existing floating-point DSPs, the C674x devices deliver 24-32 bit accuracy and are the industry's lowest power floating-point DSPs. Slated for delivery in Q4 2008, the power consumption is as low as 6 mW in deep-sleep mode and 420 mW total power in active mode. For more information on power specifications, see the product bulletin at www.ti.com/c674xpb.
· High performance at half the power with TMS320C640x DSPs: The C640x DSPs use half the power of existing high-performance devices in TI's TMS320C6000™ DSP platform, giving system designers the ability to add portability to processing-intensive applications including software defined radio, industrial instrumentation and emerging markets. Based on TI's high-performance C64+™ core, the devices offer power consumption as low as low as 6 mW in deep-sleep mode and 415 mW total power in active mode. Through pin-for-pin and software compatibility with various OMAP-L1x and C674x products, the C640x processors offer a new level of scalability and will be available in early 2009. For more information on power specifications, see the product bulletin at www.ti.com/c640xpb.
· Multimedia performance and low power with OMAP-L1x applications processors: Enabling developers to integrate feature-rich GUIs as well as networking and touch screen capabilities into their portable designs, the new OMAP-L1x product line includes ARM9 and ARM9-plus-DSP architectures. The new devices will offer a variety of peripherals for networking and will run Linux or the DSP/BIOS™ real-time kernel for operating system flexibility. The product line is also pin-for-pin compatible with various devices in the new C674x and C640x product lines. Power consumption ranges from 6 mW in deep-sleep mode to 435 mW total power in active mode, and the devices will be available in early 2009. For more information on power specifications, see the product bulletin at www.ti.com/omapl1xpb.
· Maximize battery life with TMS320C550x: For developers requiring the longest battery life, TI will be extending the low-power leadership of its TMS320C5000™ DSP platform with new C550x devices. The new DSPs include large on-chip memory as well as an optimized FFT coprocessor for faster analysis and still cut core power consumption levels to 6.8 μW in deep-sleep mode and 46 mW total power in active mode - half the power of existing C5000 devices. Applications such as multi-parameter medical, noise reduction headphones and portable audio/music recording will benefit from the performance and peripheral scheme of the C550x DSPs. For more information on the power specifications, see the product bulletin at www.ti.com/c550xpb.
Texas Instruments
