TI Rolls out Low-Power DSPs

Fifteen new multi-architecture devices are designed to boost battery life

Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, August 26, 2008

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced a device roadmap that is said to include the industry's lowest power, floating point digital signal processors (DSPs).

Aimed at portable products that typically have days or weeks of battery life, the processor roadmap includes 15 new multi-architecture devices. TI engineers say the new processors could be employed in software-defined radio, bar-code scanners, e-books, audio recorders, digital stethoscopes and hands-free car kits, among other end products.

"Developers are trying to squeeze twice as much performance out of their products and still keep the same battery life," says John Dixon, low power product line manager for TI. "These devices can give them the same battery life with more performance or the same performance with longer battery life."

The new platform of processors includes TMS320C674x DSPs, which combines low power with high precision, the TMS320C640x DSPs, which offer high performance at half the power and the OMAP-L1x SoCs, which combine multimedia performance with low power. Another family of processors known as the TMS320C550x are targeted at applications that need maximum battery life.

TI engineers say the TMS320C674x family offers some of the best power numbers of any floating point DSP.

"We've reached a new power threshold with that device," Dixon says. "It has 20 times lower standby power than existing floating point DSPs, and it runs at one-third the total power of any other floating point DSP on the market."

TI has targeted the TMS320C674x for the fourth quarter of 2008 and plans to roll out the TMS320C640x and the OMAP-L1x for early 2009.

The rollouts are part of a larger strategy by TI to introduce new power-stingy devices. Earlier this summer, TI unveiled an MSP430 microcontroller that offers active current consumption that's three times better than its previous generation.

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