Intel Investors - Intel Demos first DSP prototype for its Micro Signal Architecture.
This isn't a final product - but it does indicate that progress is (finally) being made.
Paul
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Intel demos first silicon for new DSP architecture
By Patrick Mannion , EE Times
Apr 16, 2001 (7:04 PM)
URL: eetimes.com
MANHASSET, N.Y. — Intel Corp. gave a much-anticipated demonstration of the first working silicon for its Micro Signal Architecture (MSA) at the Intel Developer Forum in Tokyo Monday (April 16). Shown during the keynote by Ron Smith, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Wireless Communications and Computing Group, the demo showed a 340-MHz version of the core, operating at 1.3 V, performing speech processing running an adaptive multi-rate algorithm. The core can scale to over 400 MHz at 1.6 V.
"It's still very much a development project," said Dennis Sheehan, director of marketing for Intel's Cellular Communications Division, "and in the demo, it is only limited by the particular hardware configuration. The silicon is basically a test chip for the core — it's not a product yet." The focus for MSA, according to Sheehan, will be on wireless baseband chip sets and integrated systems-on-chip (SoCs) with both MSA and XScale, Intel's RISC solution for applications processing in wireless handsets.
Considering the wireless handset focus for MSA, power consumption at a given performance is crucial and was a major focal point for the MSA development team, which was a joint venture with Analog Devices Inc. According to Sheehan, "The data they're showing [for the demonstration] ranges from .7 V at 0.11 mW/MMAC (million multiply accumulates) up to 0.56 mW/MMAC at 400 MHz and 1.6 V. The configuration is designed to fully consume the system." The power figures are just for the core itself.
Key features of the architecture include dynamic power management, designed to optimize the power to the task at hand by adjusting the voltage and frequency. In addition, tuned instructions optimize the bitstream for multimedia applications. |
