To expand its portfolio into the DSP arena, licensable software solutions provider RadioScape has acquired U.K.-based DSP developer Systolix Ltd. Together, the partners have developed a synthesizable DSP core that's configurable and scalable. Employing a multiprocessor architecture, RadioScape's pulseDSP is based on an array of bit-serial MACs, which can be configured via a microprocessor.
The architecture is called systolic because each cell processes data and passes the results on to the next cell in synchronization with a common clock. Also, the architecture permits hundreds of MACs to be configured as a field-programmable processor array (FPPA) to process data concurrently (Fig. 4). Consequently, PulseDSP's performance is up to 200 gigaMACS at 16-bit operations when implemented in 0.15-µm CMOS, according to RadioScape.
Targeting next-generation basestations and multimode wireless handsets, the PulseDSP is supported by a system design tool flow that generates accurate hardware description language (HDL) and C models of the complete core.
Also making gains on this front are 3DSP and Adelante Technologies. While 3DSP continues to complement its configurable DSP cores with optimized applications software, it also has crafted configurable and extendible DSP cores for different wireless handsets and speech processing subsystems.
Adelante's Saturn DSP core offers a dual Harvard architecture that in-cludes two 16-bit multipliers, four ALUs, two address calculation units, a barrel shifter, a program control unit, a hardware loop control unit, a saturation and shift unit, and a bit-manipulation unit. It executes 420 million MACs at a 210-MHz clock, consuming only 0.25 mW/MHz and occupying 0.5 mm2 of silicon.
The chip's instructions are optimized for execution of wireless and speech applications. To further exploit the core's resources, the architecture permits an additional 256 application-specific 96-bit VLIW instructions. Furthermore, the core hardware can be expanded with application-specific execution units to accelerate repetitive signal processing tasks like Viterbi butterflies or FFTs. As part of its subsystem strategy, Adelante also furnishes application-specific coprocessors with tight links to the Saturn core.
Interestingly, the developers of configurable and reconfigurable DSP cores are going after a market that's fiercely competitive and slowly emerging. Market research firm Forward Concepts estimates it at $273 million for this year, with a compound annual growth rate of 23.9% for the next few years.