Philips aims to use common designs across platforms by "design re-use"............
eet.com
Excerpt:
<<Claasen
outlined what Philips Semiconductors has identified as core modules for two
product categories: digital TVs/set-top boxes and telecom terminals.
For the digital-TV platform, Philips Semiconductors has chosen a MIPS CPU
core and a TriMedia DSP in what Claasen called a dual-processor approach.
While the DTV platform is a MIPS-based architecture, he said, the TriMedia
DSP can be added to provide flexibility. The DSP's ability to handle new
features or emerging algorithms in software is vital, since digital-TV
applications are expected to evolve gradually.
As nonstandard applications come up, Dengel amplified, "media processors
such as the TriMedia can help free up the computing power of the CPU,
making the platform both more flexible and scalable."
The pSOS and Windows CE operating systems and a MIPS bus were also
chosen for the DTV platform.>>
<<SNIP>>
<<The transition, already well under way for the digital-video platform but yet to
be sorted out for others, is much easier to talk about than to implement.
Dengel observed that the toughest part of the transition to the digital-video
platform strategy so far is not so much the technology itself, "but introducing
the changes to the management process or mind-set of our own people."
Though they have already stepped into the digital domain, he said, "many
engineers and engineering managers in the community are still thinking within
the parameters of analog design and analog-product life cycles.">>
<<SNIP>>
<<If Philips Semiconductors' customers were interested in the development of a
DVD/set-top combo product, for example, closer design collaboration among
the Caen, Southampton and Nijmegen sites would be crucial.
"We'd first have to make sure each block from the different sites could be
simulated," said Dengel. "Further, we'd need to be able to carry out the total
system integration under one roof, by using a [common] methodology, design
flow and library of reusable blocks.">> |
