Embedded Processor Watch

Editor: Tom Halfhill

In This Issue:

• A Detailed Look At Massana's DSP Coprocessor Core
• Motorola's DragonBall Rolls Faster
• Zoran's Soft DSP Core Optimized for Audio
• Industry Resources: Process Technology for Buck Rogers

A Detailed Look At Massana's DSP Coprocessor Core

Irish startup Massana presented its FILU-200 -- a new, licensable, VLIW-based DSP coprocessor core -- at the recent Microprocessor Forum (see Embedded Processor Watch #71, http://www.MDRonline.com/q/epw/issues/epw_71.html). A detailed analysis of this core reveals several innovative features.

The compact, fixed-point core is designed to bolt onto a general-purpose host core and provide significant DSP horsepower without requiring changes to the host processor. The FILU-200 (whose name, according to Massana, doesn't stand for anything) is specifically targeted at applications that make heavy use of fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) algorithms, such as DSL modems. For these applications, Massana aims to provide speed and numeric fidelity approaching that of custom hardware, while easing time to market for system-on-chip designs by offering an off-the-shelf core in synthesizable form, along with a library of prewritten DSP functions.

While DSP-enhanced microcontrollers and CPUs have become commonplace over the past few years, a combination of two factors differentiates Massana's approach from those of other vendors. First, the FILU-200 will work with any processor. Although it is designed to work with a 32-bit MCU such as an ARM or MIPS core, it could be connected to a proprietary MCU, a high-end CPU, or even a DSP core to boost performance.

Second, Massana intends the FILU-200 to be viewed as a hardware-assisted DSP software library rather than as a programmable processor. Hence, the FILU-200 comes with a set of common DSP subroutines in ROM and a host-side high-level API for accessing those routines. Massana hopes that many application developers will be able to implement the key DSP functionality of their applications by using these built-in functions, avoiding the forbidding task of hand-crafting optimized DSP routines.

Given the vast array of DSP-enhanced general-purpose processors currently being offered, one may reasonably question whether there is room for yet another approach to combining host and DSP capabilities. Due to the complexity of developing new DSP routines for the device, the FILU-200 has very limited appeal as a general-purpose DSP engine.

Massana's approach, however, is likely to appeal to developers of system-on-chip devices who want a "black-box" solution to their application-specific DSP needs, and to those who value the flexibility of a DSP coprocessor that isn't bound to a particular host architecture. Massana's reliance on DSP subroutine libraries tuned for specific applications is both a key strength and a vulnerability of the FILU-200. Such libraries will indeed provide strong appeal to system developers suffering increasingly painful time-to-market constraints, but nothing prevents other vendors of licensable DSP cores from offering equivalent libraries, potentially eliminating one of the FILU-200's key advantages.--Rick Grehan, Jeff Bier, and Jennifer Eyre, Berkeley Design Technology, Inc. (The full version of this article appeared in the November 15 issue of Microprocessor Report.)

Motorola's DragonBall Rolls Faster

Normally it isn't big news when Motorola nudges up the clock frequency of a 68K-series microprocessor. But the company's recent announcement of a faster DragonBall chip with an integrated color-LCD controller provoked a spate of news reports about 3Com's alleged plans to introduce a new Palm organizer with a color screen. 3Com quickly squashed those rumors, saying that Palm won't use a color LCD until it can do so without seriously compromising the product's size, weight, and battery life.

Nevertheless, the new DragonBall 68VZ328 is definitely an improvement over existing DragonBall chips -- both the 68328 in the original PalmPilot and the 68EZ328 in newer models from 3Com and startup Handspring. The DragonBall VZ doubles the clock frequency to 33 MHz, adds color capability to the integrated LCD controller, adds support for SDRAM to the integrated memory controller, and has other enhancements. At a bargain-basement price of $11 in 10,000-unit quantities, DragonBall VZ costs only $1 more than the new 20-MHz version of DragonBall EZ that Motorola announced at the same time.--T.R.H. (The full version of this article appeared in the November 15 issue of Microprocessor Report.)

Zoran's Soft DSP Core Optimized for Audio

At last month's Microprocessor Forum, Zoran (http://www.zoran.com/) announced a new synthesizable DSP core for audio applications. Known as Muzichord, the 32-bit fixed-point DSP has enough speed and precision to handle next-generation audio standards such as DVD audio. Zoran plans to sample the first chips based on the core in 2Q00 and make evaluation samples available to customers in June.

Zoran has been making audio and video chips since 1993, when it introduced the first single-chip AC-3 decoder. The company's product line includes 20-bit DSPs for DVD, MPEG-2, and digital theater sound (DTS) decoding. Muzichord is Zoran's highest-performance DSP core and its first 32-bit device. In addition to using Muzichord in its own application-specific standard products (ASSPs), Zoran plans to license the soft core to other companies for integration in ASICs and systems on a chip (SOCs).--T.R.H. (The full version of this article appeared in the November 15 issue of Microprocessor Report.)

Industry Resources: Process Technology for Buck Rogers

It's not quite the 25th century, but it's already time for a new report on "Process Technology for the 21st Century." This report, published by Semiconductor Consulting Services (SCS), focuses on IC processes with feature sizes of 0.18 microns and smaller. It covers the changes in photolithography needed for future advances, new materials such as copper and low-k dielectrics, and new techniques such as SOI. The company publishes a variety of other reports on the semiconductor industry.

The report is available for $845 from SCS (Phoenix, Ariz.). Contact them by phone at 602.569.8275, or point your browser to http://www.semiconsulting.com/.