[ TXN Kernel ]
March 24, 1997, Issue: 946
Section: Design
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DSP Software -- Spectron provides kernel for the 16-bit TMS320 -- TI, Spectron team on API
By Ashok Bindra
Houston - To make its digital signal processors easier to program, monitor and debug, Texas Instruments Inc. has hooked up with Spectron Microsystems to craft a new DSP/BIOS application-programming interface (API) for TI's 16-bit, fixed-point TMS320 DSP architectures.
While DSP suppliers have made several unsuccessful efforts in the past to develop a standard API across different platforms, TI is now taking the initiative to define the interface for its own TMS320 processors. Spectron (Santa Barbara, Calif.), a division of Dialogic Corp., is providing the kernel, derived from its Spox DSP operating system.
The first beta release, expected at the end of this quarter, is for the RAM-based TMS320C54X family. C5X and C2XX RAM versions will follow; the new C6X series is also on the road map, although details were not disclosed. Versions with the software embedded in ROM will be released by mid-1998.
Third-party software and hardware developers that have already lined up behind the platform include DSP Research, DSP Software Engineering, Go DSP, HotHaus Technologies and White Mountain DSP. The DSP/BIOS API will allow developers to build interoperable software tool suites, said Ron Wages, DSP marketing manager for TI's Semiconductor Group, here.
The API will also enable OEMs to bypass much of the low-level DSP software development, Wages said. That frees them to concentrate on solving the software challenges of increased complexity, space/time constraints, software reuse and non-standardized third-party products.
Meanwhile, Spectron Microsystems has also announced BIOStation, a software evaluation kit comprising a target resident embedded kernel that implements the functionality specified in the DSP/BIOS API. The kit also contains a suite of visual host-based real-time analysis, monitoring and capture tools that leverage the kernel services.
Spectron's Spox kernel has been scaled down in the API and reorganized so that mainstream DSPs, such as TI's fixed-point processors, can take advantage of it, said Bob Frankel, Spectron's vice president and co-founder. The DSP/BIOS, defined as a small standalone firmware kernel, requires less than 1 kword of code space and less than 1 Mips of processing, he said.
The kernel offers features like basic tasking, I/O, integrated data capture and real-time analysis, Frankel said. The API provides interface specifications for target processors as well.
The two partners have been working together on the DSP/ BIOS API for close to two years. The idea arose from a suggestion made by Ross Mitchell, president of HotHaus Technologies (Richmond, B.C.), at a TI third-parties workshop. Mitchell recommended a unified physical-layer API that all software vendors could work toward with the hope of interoperability of algorithms from multiple vendors.
The initiative brings new capability to TI DSPs, said DSP consultant Henry Davis, president of Henry Davis Consulting (Natick, Mass.). In particular, Davis said, data capture and real-time analysis over a JTAG channel is a breakthrough. It gives the DSP kernel the ability to diagnose control systems remotely without changing the system timing, he said.
But, Davis cautioned, the DSP/BIOS should not be confused with PC BIOS, which is a horse of another color.
"It is a novel approach to using JTAG," agreed Will Strauss, president of market-research firm Forward Concepts Inc. (Tempe, Ariz.). It will raise the level of DSP development tools to the level of MCU development, said Strauss, as well as decreasing design cycle time and cost. The end result, he predicted, is proliferation into new markets of TI's DSPs.
Forward Concepts estimates that TI will capture about 50 percent of the worldwide market in general-purpose programmable DSPs this year. Last year, the company had about a 46 percent share.
TI's Wages said that the DSP/BIOS kernel will be initially distributed as a RAM-based module that can be downloaded to the processor at run-time. Later, the software will be embedded in ROM.
Programmers access the kernel services by making calls to the API from their C or assembly-language programs, according to Spectron. To maximize efficiency, the kernel firmware is packaged as a collection of C- and assembly-callable modules that can be selectively linked with the application.
"We are pleased to see Spectron move ahead with an implementation of the DSP/BIOS API," said Wages of the BIOStation, "and we look forward to working with other algorithm and tool suppliers to enhance and refine the platform."
Spectron's Frankel said the product's unique real-time capture facilities will lay the groundwork for a new generation of tools for debug, manufacturing test, diagnostics and field service-tools that can monitor and analyze DSP programs as they execute in real-time.
"PC software developers have benefited enormously from a standard operating system and BIOS platform, which enhances interoperability and improves programmer productivity by eliminating the need to re-create basic system-level facilities," Frankel said. "We're confident that BIOStation will do the same for DSP software practitioners."
BIOStation is planned for release in the second quarter and will be available for TI's TMS320C54X. The kit is priced at $995.
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