Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Freescale Semiconductor | Subject: Reconfigurable compute fabric
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 March 2003
Reconfigurable DSPs boost wireless
infrastructure
Motorola has demonstrated advanced development tools and new silicon based on reconfigurable compute fabric (RCF) technology at its Smart Networks Developer Forum in Dallas, Texas.
Motorola has demonstrated advanced development tools and new silicon based on reconfigurable compute fabric (RCF) technology at its Smart Networks Developer Forum in Dallas, Texas The company also intends to offer comprehensive and programmable baseband solutions for wireless infrastructure applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Until now, this challenge has been addressed through the use of ASICs and FPGAs for MIPS-intensive signal processing tasks - a choice that may undermine system cost, flexibility, time-to-market, and OEMs' cost per channel objectives.
RCF devices offer the benefits of a programmable DSP solution for baseband processing, while approaching the cost, power consumption, and processing capability of a traditional ASIC-based approach.
"This marks the first time a major DSP supplier has moved into the area of reconfigurable signal processing", commented Will Strauss, President of Forward Concepts.
"The time is right.
This technology will bring us a step closer to true software-defined radio".
Along with MSC810x StarCore technology-based DSPs, RCF devices deliver an innovative system solution for 2.5G and 3G baseband processing.
The highly flexible RCF devices are based on an array of optimised processing elements, and present an efficient solution for computationally intensive tasks.
Motorola RCF and DSP product strategy encompasses aggressive cost per channel targets with flexibility, device integration, and support for advanced system-level features that address the immediate and longer-term market evolution toward lower cost base stations and increased functionality.
"With an advanced architecture and an array of tools and software libraries, Motorola's RCF solution combines the cost-effectiveness of an ASIC with the flexibility of a DSP in a manner that satisfies the complex requirements of wireless systems", says Lynelle McKay, Vice President and General Manager of Motorola's RF and DSP Infrastructure Systems Division.
"With Motorola, customers can choose from a breadth of flexible and programmable offerings - including PowerPC host processors, DSPs, and now RCF, while meeting system cost targets".
"Our analysis shows that a combination of DSP and RCF offers an advantageous solution for all elements of 2.5G and 3G baseband processing including equalisation, chip rate, symbol rate, and advanced 3G functions like smart antenna and multi user detection", said Roman Robles, Manager, Digital Technologies Operation, RF and DSP Infrastructure Systems Division.
"Other potential applications for RCF are echo cancellation and video processing, in particular MPEG-4 encode/decode".
Unlike FPGAs and ASICs, RCF does not require Hardware Description Language (HDL) coding and is fully programmable in C and assembly languages.
As a part of Motorola's commitment to provide comprehensive state-of-the-art solutions, Metrowerks expects to offer its highly integrated CodeWarrior development environment for RCF - the same award-winning environment used for DSP and host processor software development.
Motorola also expects to offer an extensive library of integrated and verified communication and signal processing modules, plus a range of hardware development platforms to expedite proof-of-concept designs and deployment.
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