Freescale Announces Industry's First 90nm Multi-Core Programmable DSPs in Volume Production; MSC8122 and MSC8126 DSPs based on StarCore Technology Lead in Low Power Consumption and Combined Performance, Scaling Up to 2GHz.AUSTIN, Texas -- Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focuses their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embedded and communications markets. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :FSL FSL - Formal Semantics Language. A language for compiler writing. ["A Formal Semantics for Computer Languages and its Application in a Compiler-Compiler", J.A. Feldman, CACM 9(1) (Jan 1966)]. [Sammet 1969, p. 641]. ) (NYSE:FSL.B) is leveraging its multi-core processor design expertise and advanced process technology to address customer needs for higher signal processing See DSP. performance at lower power consumption. Freescale, the No. 2 supplier of programmable digital signal processors (DSPs), is the first to manufacture a multi-core programmable 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 on 90 nanometer (nm) process technology and bring it into volume production. Freescale's 90nm MSC (1) (MSC.Software Corporation, Santa Ana, CA, www.mscsoftware.com) Founded in 1963 by Richard H. MacNeal and Robert G. Schwendler, MSC is the world's largest provider of mechanical computer aided engineering (MCAE) strategies, simulation software and services. 8122 and MSC8126 DSPs integrate four StarCore(R) DSP cores onto a single die. These second-generation multi-core devices are designed to deliver a high-performance, yet cost-effective solution that effectively quadruples performance over single-core DSP offerings. Freescale is focused on reducing the milliwatt mil·li·watt n. Abbr. mW A unit of power equal to one thousandth (10-3) of a watt. Noun 1. milliwatt - a unit of power equal to one thousandth of a watt per MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. ratio in embedded applications by offering optimal power-to-performance processing solutions. Compared to multi-core microprocessors (MPUs) in the server market that dissipate tens of watts, the low-power MSC812x devices deliver an unmatched 2GHz and 8 giga multiply accumulates per second (GMACs) of DSP processing power while dissipating only 2 watts. "Freescale's MSC8122 multi-core DSP delivers the performance we need for our next-generation CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) A method for transmitting simultaneous signals over a shared portion of the spectrum. The foremost application of CDMA is the digital cellular phone technology from QUALCOMM that operates in the 800 MHz band and 1.9 GHz PCS band. IP-BSC equipment while enabling us to reduce our cost- and power-per-channel, increase our board density and preserve our software investment," said Mark Borota, Motorola's senior vice president of Cellular Networks. Embedded system Any electronic system that uses a CPU chip, but that is not a general-purpose workstation, desktop or laptop computer. Such systems generally use microprocessors, or they may use custom-designed chips or both. developers are now looking at DSPs, such as Freescale's MSC812x family, as alternatives to higher power, general-purpose MPUs. With four cores running at 500MHz and delivering 2GHz combined performance, these multi-core DSPs are ideal for a wide range of computation-intensive infrastructure applications. Examples include radio network controllers (RNCs), packet telephony media gateways, video multi-conferencing units and high-speed downlink packet access High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data (HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) See HSPA. ) support for basestations. The processing power of the MSC812x devices also enables the convergence of software-driven applications by offering video, voice, fax and modem capabilities on a single platform. "The compression, transcoding, and interworking (standard) interworking - Systems or components, possibly from different origins, working together to perform some task. Interworking depends crucially on standards to define the interfaces between the components. requirements of voice in converged networks have historically been addressed by power-hungry DSP farms," said Sanjay Iyer, senior analyst at The Linley Group. "Freescale's new quad-core MSC8122 and MSC8126 DSPs leverage the advantages of 90nm technology to deliver an unprecedented 8 GMACs of signal-processing performance at a low 2 watts. An array of these devices constitutes a programmable, power-efficient DSP platform that can support a variety of demanding applications, such as transcoding gateways and 3G wireless basestations." "By offering volume production of our multicore programmable DSPs, Freescale is delivering on our promise to provide embedded systems designers with a high-performance, low-power option to general-purpose single-core DSPs and MPUs," said Lynelle McKay, vice president and general manager of Freescale's Networking and Communications Systems Division. "Our customers need greater processing power with low power dissipation at a cost-effective price point. The MSC812x devices not only deliver exceptional performance but also offer the benefits of 90nm process technology, which enables low core voltage, lower cost and low power dissipation." The MSC812x DSPs, recently highlighted in EDN's "Hot Products of 2004," offer 1.43 Mbyte of internal memory, a high bandwidth external memory interface, a rich set of advanced peripherals including an 10/100 Mbps Ethernet controller, and high throughput co-processors, all on an optimized architecture featuring Freescale's best-in-class, multi-core system-on-chip (SoC) platform design. The MSC8126 device features a turbo-coding co-processor (TCOP TCOP Total Cost of Print (Lexmark International, Inc.) TCOP Technical Cooperation Program TCOP Test and Checkout Plan TCOP Turbo Decode Co-Processor TCOP Total Cost of Ownership Program ) and Viterbi co-processor (VCOP VCOP Virtual Cockpit Optimization Program (military aviation) VCOP Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation (UK education) ) to accelerate wireless baseband processing. All MSC812x devices are binary software compatible with single-core MSC711xx and MSC81xx families and pin-compatible with the first-generation MSC8102 device. The 300MHz and 400MHz versions of the MSC812x DSPs are offered at an extended temperature range of minus 40 to 105 degrees Celsius. The 500MHz version is offered at standard temperature of zero to 90 degrees Celsius. As a leader in DSP solutions for wireless and VoIP infrastructure applications, Freescale has shipped multiple millions of DSPs based on StarCore technology since the architecture's inception in 2001. Freescale has shipped MSC812x DSPs to more than 20 customers designing VoIP and wireless infrastructure applications. Freescale is the only supplier of programmable DSP solutions with binary code compatibility spanning from four to 8000+ channels. Freescale is the No. 2 supplier of DSP products and a global provider of technical support designed to accelerate customers' design cycles and speed time to market. The MSC812x devices are designed to exceed customer expectations for high quality, robustness, programmability and availability of a full service development ecosystem. Freescale offers turnkey software solution with a comprehensive VoIP and wireless transcoding framework. Freescale offers MSC8122ADS and MSC8126ADS development boards that work seamlessly with the CodeWarrior(TM) Development Studio for DSPs based on StarCore technology. Pricing and Availability The MSC8122 and MSC8126 devices at 500MHz, 400MHz and 300MHz have passed full industrial qualification and are now available for volume production. MSC812x family unit pricing starts at $127.74 in 10K quantities. About Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Freescale became a publicly traded company publicly traded company A company whose shares of common stock are held by the public and are available for purchase by investors. The shares of publicly traded firms are bought and sold on the organized exchanges or in the over-the-counter market. in July 2004 after more than 50 years as part of Motorola, Inc. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale, a member of the S&P 500(R), is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, with 2004 sales of $5.7 billion (US). www.freescale.com Freescale Technology Forum Learn more about this inaugural forum, June 20-23, Orlando, Florida, featuring visionary keynote speeches, in-depth technical presentations and technology demonstrations from Freescale and leading hardware, software and tools providers. www.freescale.com/ftf Freescale(TM) and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (C) Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2005 |
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