ADI's New Blackfin™ DSP—Sailing Above the Chop
by Dr. Barry Henderson
Well what have we here? Is this simply another hyped up number cruncher, or is it a serious architectural trend setter? Is it a DSP…is it a microcontroller?…or is it a mixed-up silicon schizoid transient trying to satisfy every conceivable market all at once?
These glitzy hybrid designs often fail on all counts, and are quickly forgotten (except for the poor souls lumbered with programming them, trying to squeeze out every last cycle to obtain even meager performance!). Well, I honestly perceive that the label of serious trend setter is a more appropriate label to attach to the Blackfin™ DSP family recently introduced by Analog Devices, and I will be writing a short series of articles describing and analyzing their performance and application area. This first article provides an introduction and overview of the Blackfin™ DSP family, focusing on the first device offered by ADI, the ADSP-21535.
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Conclusion
The new Blackfin™ DSPmC (Digital Signal Processor with mController Capability) family from ADI promises to be a competitive, interesting, and very welcome addition into the arena of high-performance multimedia computing. It has many features that point to it being a winner:
a well-thought-out roadmap,
very high performance DSP coupled to low power features,
the mathematical aptitude to handle complex tasks at high speed,
lots of on-chip communications resources,
many of the control functions offered by a microcontroller, and
enough memory to eliminate most forms of paralysis and amnesia, which often afflict fast processors with limited RAM.
Coupled with excellent tools such as VisualDSP++ and a decent RTOS, the Blackfin™ should prove popular with developers.
The next article will delve further into the low power claims and the instruction-set architecture of this new processor family.
(my require registering to see the whole thing).
chipcenter.com
Once again, I have heard from a design engr who had nothing good to say about ADI. Apparently, his company was very unhappy with ADI's parts delivery during last yr's parts cruch. ADI was not able or unwilling to communicate status on orders. Very big black eye for ADI and the guy stated that ADI is on the "avoid list" for new design work.
Jim |
