Catalytic Inc. Reduces DSP Development Times With DSP Design Automation Software; Fixed-Point DSP Studio To Be Demonstrated This Week During GSPx.PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif. -- Catalytic Inc. today announced the first in a series of digital signal processing See DSP. Digital Signal Processing - (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled). (DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive ) Design Automation software products, delivering on its promise to create an automated path from algorithm specification to implementation for faster and more efficient DSP design cycles. Catalytic's Fixed-Point DSP Studio(TM) software speeds floating-point to fixed-point conversion for users implementing systems using C or register transfer level (RTL (Register Transfer Level) A high-level hardware description language (HDL) for defining digital circuits. The circuits are described as a collection of registers, Boolean equations, control logic such as "if-then-else" statements as well as complex event sequences; ). It shortens implementation time for fixed-point DSP algorithms by providing fixed-point variables in MATLAB (MATrix LABoratory) A programming language for technical computing from The MathWorks, Natick, MA (www.mathworks.com). Used for a wide variety of scientific and engineering calculations, especially for automatic control and signal processing, MATLAB runs on Windows, Mac and (R), a numerical analysis numerical analysis Branch of applied mathematics that studies methods for solving complicated equations using arithmetic operations, often so complex that they require a computer, to approximate the processes of analysis (i.e., calculus). and visualization environment from The MathWorks, accelerating MATLAB verification simulations up to 20X. An interactive graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to (GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. ) manages the conversion process. "The Catalytic Fixed-Point DSP Studio has the potential to significantly improve the software engineering development cycle for products exploiting DSP capabilities," says Paul Zorfass, senior analyst with IDC/First Technology. "The Studio product has the ability to provide increased value and improvements in productivity, efficiencies and documentation for DSP-centric solutions." The Fixed-Point DSP Studio will be demonstrated at the GSPx Conference in Booth Number 315 this week, from Monday, September 27, through Thursday, September 30, at the Santa Clara Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif. "DSP developers are still using design flows that employ manual steps to implement algorithms in today's fast-paced environment," notes Randy Allen James Randall (Randy) Allen (born January 26, 1965 in Milton, Florida) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'8" forward from Florida State University, Allen was never drafted by an NBA team but did manage to play two years in the NBA form 1988 to 1990 for the , Catalytic Inc.'s founder and chief executive officer (CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. ). "Instead, they need tools to save them time and help them eliminate errors. The Fixed-Point DSP Studio is intended to do just that." Starting from a floating-point algorithm in MATLAB, users of the Fixed-Point DSP Studio convert to a fixed-point version and explore it within the MATLAB environment using the DSP Studio simulation acceleration and analysis capabilities. The Catalytic Fixed-Point Studio is designed for DSP development teams who employ MATLAB as an algorithm development environment and who implement algorithms on fixed-point processors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The Fixed-Point DSP Studio includes three components -- the Toolbox, the Analyzer and the Accelerator. The DSP Studio Toolbox adds fixed-point arithmetic to MATLAB and supports common processor-specific operations, such as multiply with shift and saturate sat·u·rate v. Abbr. sat. 1. To imbue or impregnate thoroughly. 2. To soak, fill, or load to capacity. 3. To cause a substance to unite with the greatest possible amount of another substance. . Conversion of designs to fixed-point versions is simplified by type propagation -- operations using variables defined as fixed-point types automatically produce fixed-point results. Operations also produce bitwise Dealing with bits rather than larger structures such as a byte. For example, each of the eight bits in a byte can be used as an individual flag to signal yes/no, on/off (1 or 0) about some condition. The Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT also deal with individual bits rather than bytes. identical results to fixed-point processors from Texas Instruments and Analog Devices in processor-specific versions of the DSP Studio Toolbox. The DSP Studio Analyzer offers an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for analysis and debugging of floating to fixed-point conversions and displays effects of automatic type propagation on all variables. The Analyzer's call-graph and error reporting facilitate easy traversal of a design, debugging and management of the conversion process. The DSP Studio Accelerator decreases simulation times of floating-point and fixed-point MATLAB programs. The Accelerator is seamlessly integrated with the MATLAB environment and typically provides simulation speed-ups of five to 10X. Catalytic Inc. employs proprietary optimization and synthesis technologies to optimize simulation performance, as well as provide rapid analysis and feedback on the status of fixed-point design conversion. It has applied for several patents on its technology. Over the next six months, Catalytic Inc. will unveil additional software to add to its DSP Design Automation environment. Pricing and Availability The Fixed-Point DSP Studio begins shipping in Q4 2004 on Windows operating systems. Pricing starts at $4,995 for an annual license. For more details, contact Lisa Schmidt, vice president of marketing at Catalytic Inc. She can be reached at (650) 846 2555 x 220 or via email at lisa@catalyticinc.com About Catalytic Inc. Catalytic speeds the development of DSP applications by creating an efficient path from algorithmic specification to implementation. Catalytic Inc. was founded in 2001 by Dr. Randy Allen, a successful entrepreneur, world-renowned compiler technology expert and the co-author of the book, "Optimizing Compilers for Modern Architectures: A Dependence-based Approach." Corporate headquarters are located at 1076A East Meadow Circle, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303. Telephone: (650) 846-2555. Facsimile: (650) 846-2557. Email: info@catalyticinc.com. More information about Catalytic Inc. can be found at its website located at: http://www.catalyticinc.com. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks. Fixed-Point DSP Studio is a trademark of Catalytic Inc. Catalytic Inc. acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services. |
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