Taiwanese SoC designers adopt configurable core

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 12, 2006

Afa Technologies of Taipei, Taiwan, has selected the Xtensa configurable processor for a new multistandard mobile digital TV receiver system-on-chip design project.

Afa Technologies of Taipei, Taiwan, has selected the Xtensa configurable processor for a new multistandard mobile digital TV receiver system-on-chip (SoC) design project.

Afa is a fabless IC design house specialising in designs for DTV (digital television), cellular phones and digital home LANs (local area networks).

"We picked Tensilica's Xtensa processor because we were very impressed with the ability to customise it, using the TIE (Tensilica Instruction Extension) language, for our demanding mobile TV demodulator application", stated Philip Sun, Afa's Executive Vice President.

"Tensilica's unique technology allows us to implement in low-power processors what previously was only possible using hardwired logic".

"By optimising the Xtensa processor, we can deliver a programmable solution for advanced mobile TV handsets, and still meet the low power constraints needed to deliver the long battery life consumers expect".

"Afa has extensive experience in DTV, and their engineers knew that a standard DSP processor core cannot deliver the combination of high performance and low power they need for this demanding application".

"We're happy to work with them on their first Xtensa-based project", stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's Vice President of Marketing.

Tensilica's Xtensa processors are configurable, extensible and synthesisable.

Using automated Xtensa technology, the system designer moulds the processor to fit the application by selecting and configuring predefined elements of the architecture and by inventing completely new TIE instructions and hardware execution units that can deliver performance levels orders of magnitude faster than alternative solutions.