Motorola's DSP96002 Floating-Point DSP Receives Speed Increase, Lower Price; 60 MHz Version Now Available For $49.95.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1996--Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector today announced a dramatic price reduction and a performance increase for its 32-bit DSP96002 floating-point dual-port processor.

By increasing the clock speed to 60 MHz and packaging the device in a more cost-effective Ceramic Quad-Flat Package (CQFP), Motorola can now offer customers 90 million floating-point operations per second (MFLOPS) of performance for $49.95 in volume.

"The DSP96002 continues to find applications where its unique combination of peripherals, ports and floating-point performance are needed," said Keith Essency, general manager of the General Purpose DSP Operation. "We are continuing to support interested customers as evidenced by today's announcement of a higher operating speed and a lower price."

When it was introduced, the DSP96002 represented a new class of processor, capable of handling what was once a disparate array of applications requiring multi-chip implementations.

The DSP96002 is optimized to handle graphics and sound because of two basic qualities: It is a deterministic processor, giving results at precisely the expected moment, which is ideal for generating compact-disc quality sound or imaging; it also provides a high-performance floating-point engine to drive non-real time applications, such as graphics.

Today the DSP96002 is designed into a variety of systems including military and medical imaging (Sonar, Radar, X-ray) and cellular base stations.

From an architecture standpoint, the DSP96002 is essentially a 32-bit floating-point version of Motorola's 24-bit DSP56002. The 56000 family of DSPs, including the DSP56002, has become a leading processing solution in the digital audio industry.

The addition of a floating-point engine enables the DSP96002 to specifically handle high-resolution, moving, shaded and three-dimensional graphics and imaging algorithms. Additionally, the DSP96002 can process full-motion video compression/decompression, computer animation, color printing and facsimile, as well as on-board data and telecommunication applications.

Key Architectural Features

The foundation of the DSP96002 processing power is derived from a dual-memory Harvard-style architecture integrated with a large number of memories, ports, controllers, buses and execution units working in parallel for maximum performance.

The DSP96002 has three independent execution units that operate in parallel, dual 32-bit direct memory access (DMA) controllers which usher data on and off chip, six on-chip memories (2K Words of RAM and 1K Word of ROM that can occupy up to 2K Word locations), two non-multiplexed 32-bit expansion bus ports which can be configured into one 64-bit port, two independent 32-bit slave host ports which remove the need for glue logic when interfacing other processors, eight 32-bit buses (five data, three address) that combine for an internal bandwidth of 250 megabytes per second and an on-chip emulation controller which becomes the chip's own debugger.

The three independent execution units within the central processing unit (CPU) are an IEEE single extended precision arithmetic logic unit (ALU) for central math and logical processing, a program control unit (PCU) for fetching, decoding and dispatching instructions, and a dual address generation unit (AGU) that calculates addresses of data to be fetched from memory.

DSP96002 Precision

The DSP96002 was the first DSP-based processor to be fully compliant with the IEEE-754 standard for binary floating-point math. Adherence to this IEEE standard guarantees that results generated using the DSP96002 are identical to those generated on computers and high-level languages adhering to the IEEE standard. IEEE compliance gives programmers and hardware designers known calculation error bounds and parameters for testing and developing algorithms on target systems.

The DSP96002 calculates floating-point numbers that are 44-bits long in single extended precision. The CPU of the chip contains a full 32-bit by 32-bit integer multiplier with 64-bit product. It also contains ten 96-bit registers or thirty 32-bit registers for holding intermediate results. This high number of registers means that thousands of intermediate calculations are held in their original state without the need for rounding off or truncating the results.

Multiprocessor Configurations

The DSP96002 can work as a stand-alone device or in multiprocessor configurations. On opposite sides of the chip are two identical independent 32-bit ports which can each be configured as a master or slave. In the slave mode these ports provide the host (master) processor with a complete interface for communication with the DSP96002, without the need for custom-designed, performance degrading interface circuitry or glue logic.

With these two ports, the DSP96002 can receive and issue commands to other processors directly, on-the-fly. An external host processor can write new program information directly into the DSP96002's memory. Multiple DSP96002s can be easily connected in linear arrays or symmetrical multiprocessor blocks. For example, one DSP96002 can be connected between two host processors, providing information to both simultaneously.

Both ports provide 32-bit data and address buses that work like two 64-lane highways, transporting data on and off the chip simultaneously. The input/output ports are oriented toward multiprocessor arrangements and accessing fast static RAM, video RAM or dynamic RAM. The DSP96002 dual-port architecture can directly address up to 12 gigawords of memory.

Parallelism

The DSP96002 is also a highly parallel architecture. Each of the processing units and buses are arranged in a symmetrical layout, giving the DSP96002 an ability to complete 10 operations per instruction cycle with each instruction taking two clock cycles. In one instruction, the DSP96002 performs three arithmetic operations, two data move operations, four addressing operations and one DMA transfer.

Data runs back and forth between the CPU, memories and ports on eight full 32-bit buses. Five buses are bi-directional, devoted to moving data while the remaining three are unidirectional, devoted to addressing.

The DSP96002 also contains dual direct memory access (DMA) controllers that fetch or dispatch data within or outside the processor with no involvement of the central execution units.

Pricing and Availability

The 60 MHz DSP96002 is sampling now, and production volumes of the CQFP are priced at $49.95 for 10K units. A variety of software and application development tools for the DSP96002 are available from Motorola. Among these are a macro cross assembler, a linker/librarian, a simulator and C compiler, and a hardware evaluation board (application development system or ADS).

25 Years of Processor Architecture Leadership

Throughout the quarter-century since introduction of the single-chip microprocessor, Motorola has played a key role in developing a wide array of processor architecture devices including microprocessors, microcontrollers and digital signal processors. Motorola's contributions to industry-standard architectures include the 6800, 68000, DSP56000, 6805, 68HC11/12 and PowerPC(tm) families.

Over these twenty-five years, Motorola has shipped more processors worldwide than any other semiconductor supplier ... while successfully enabling products and applications including desktop computers, Internet appliances, electronic automobiles, multimedia set-top boxes and interactive microcontroller-based smartcards.

Energized by the industry's broadest processor technology portfolio, Motorola proudly offers a myriad of devices that are re-shaping the electronics industry, changing the way people work, play and communicate.

With 1995 worldwide sales of $8.5 billion, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector is committed to enabling its customers' success by providing systems solutions, processes and services to anticipate and respond to changing technologies and market dynamics.

As the largest U.S.-based, broad-line semiconductor supplier, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector delivers global resources, product design and development expertise and the highest-quality technology solutions to its customers. Motorola semiconductors power automobiles, communications and computing systems, and millions of other consumer products.

In the global marketplace, Motorola is also one of the leading providers of wireless communications, advanced electronic systems, components and services. Major equipment businesses include cellular telephone, two-way radio, paging and data communications, personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics, and computers. Corporate sales in 1995 were $27 billion. -0-

Note to Editors: Motorola is a registered trademark of Motorola Inc. PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom.

CONTACT: Motorola

Gary Silcott, 512/891-8465

http://www.motorola-dsp.com