A development platform for automotive and industrial motor-control applications built around a 32bit microcontroller is designed to simplify development of three-phase motor-control systems
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Fujitsu Microelectronics has introduced a new development platform for automotive and industrial motor-control applications built around its MB91F267N 32bit microcontroller. The MotorKit-91F267-MC starter kit has been designed to simplify development of three-phase motor-control systems. It provides an integrated 24V/15A three-phase power stage, with different currents available depending on shunt resistors.

The kit also includes connectors for external power stage, Hall sensors, encoder, and LCD; current and voltage measurements with ADC, over-current and overvoltage comparator; and isolated RS232 and CAN interfaces.

‘The new MotorKit is an ideal development platform for many advanced motor-control applications including brushless DC motors, permanent magnet synchronous motors with sinusoidal commutation, and vector control of PMSM/ACIM’, says Akio Nezu, Senior Manager, Embedded Solutions Business Group, Fujitsu Microelectronics America.

The kit is based on the MB91F267N, a highly integrated microcontroller that provides the low acoustic noise, variable speeds, high efficiency, and maximum reliability required in new generations of three-phase motor control designs for automotive, industrial and home appliance applications.
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The MB91F267N includes Fujitsu’s 32bit RISC core with a maximum internal clock speed of 33MHz (PLLx8), along with 128Kbyte dual-operation flash memory.

The flash memory enables users to perform write, read and erase operations separately in each bank for easy data storage configuration.

A flexible multifunction timer for motor control provides the following: 6-channel compare, 4-channel input capture; 4-channel (16bit) or 8-channel (8bit) PPG; 3-channel 16bit free-run timer; and a waveform generator with dead-time generation and fault input.

Other features include two dedicated 10bit ADC units with 11 input channels; a one-channel CAN interface; a two-channel UART with synchronous and asynchronous modes; eight external interrupts plus NMI; a pulse-width counter; three-channel, 16bit reload timer; a five-channel DMA; and a MAC unit providing 16 x 16bit +40bit in one cycle.

Atmel has released a family of devices it reckons are the industry’s lowest power 32bit Flash microcontrollers
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Based on Atmel’s AVR32 UC core, the UC3A Series has 512Kbyte Flash and feature an embedded 10/100 Ethernet MAC, a full-speed (12Mbit/s) USB 2.0 with on-the-go (OTG) capability and an SRAM/SDRAM external bus interface. The AT32UC3A0512 and AT32UC3A1512, the first devices available, deliver 80DMIPS at 66MHz and consume only 40mA at 3.3V.

The power consumption, as low as 1.65mW/DMIPS, outperforms other architectures with similar features by a ratio of up to 4x.

The new MCUs target networking and PC-centric embedded applications and are especially suited for portable devices.

The AVR32 UC core uses a three-stage pipeline Harvard architecture specially designed to optimise instruction fetches from on-chip Flash memory.

It is the first core in the industry to integrate single-cycle read/write SRAM with a direct interface to the CPU that bypasses the system bus to achieve faster execution, cycle determinism and lower power consumption.

The AVR32 UC core shares the same instruction set architecture (ISA) as its AVR32 AP parent, with over 220 modeless instructions available as 16bit compact and 32bit extended instructions.
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ZigBee 2006 certification for microcontrollers
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The ISA features atomic bit manipulation to control on-chip peripherals and general purpose IOs and fixed point DSP arithmetic such as single cycle fractional saturated multiply-and-accumulate.

An event handling system supports events such as prioritised interrupts, nonmaskable interrupt and internal exceptions with a maximum interrupt latency of 16 clock cycles.

The AVR32 UC3A Series incorporates many of the same peripherals as Atmel’s ARM-based MCUs including the peripheral DMA controller, multi-layer high speed bus architecture, 10bit ADC, two SPIs, SSC, two-wire interface (I2C compatible), four UARTs, three general purpose timers, seven pulsewidth modulators and a full set of supervisory functions.

The 10/100Mbit/s IEEE802.3-compliant Ethernet (MAC) allows designing networked embedded systems that communicate over internet protocol stacks.

The USB 2.0 full speed (12Mbit/s) interface provides a means to communicate with today’s PC architecture through various USB classes such as HID for serial data communication or Mass-Storage for larger bulked data transfers.

The On-The-Go (OTG) capability of the UC3A USB peripheral gives further integration opportunity in a PC-centric environment with the support of standard USB devices such as USB Flash disk, pointing devices or printers.

The external bus interface (EBI) extends the addressable physical memory to 16M bytes.

Its nonmultiplexed 16bit databus CAN interface to high density external SRAM, SDRAM, ROM, Flash devices and memory-mapped devices such as LCDs or FPGAs.

UC3A Series MCUs have a six-layer high speed bus matrix that enables bus masters peripherals to concurrently access any bus slave at a maximum speed of 264M bytes per second at 66MHz.

The bus masters are the AVR32 UC core data and instruction interfaces, 15-channel peripheral DMA controller, and several high speed peripherals such as the Ethernet MAC and USB.

The bus slaves are the on-chip SRAM and Flash memories, USB, the two peripheral bus bridges, and the external bus interface (EBI).

Atmel provides the Gnu gcc C compiler, Gnu gdb debugger, FreeRTOS.org real-time kernel and lwIP TCP/IP protocol stack for the UC3A Series family, free of charge.

Commercial licences from IAR (Embedded Workbench), ExpressLogic (ThreadX) and Micrium (uCOS/II) are also available.

Atmel’s AVR32 Studio and AVR JTAGICE mkII, provide the AVR32 UC with a multiplatform integrated development environment (IDE) already configured for the Gnu tool chain, including support for more advanced debugging such as real-time trace.

The EVK1100 evaluation kit provides Ethernet and USB interfaces, along with many other serial communications ports such as SPI, TWI and USARTS.

A 20×4 character LCD and the expansion connector allow advanced product evaluation and prototyping activities.

The AT32UC3A0512, with EBI, is available in a 144-pin QFP package and the AT32UC3A1512, without EBI, is available in a 100-pin QFP package.

Pricing starts at US $8.16 and US $7.43 for 10,000 unit quantities, respectively.

SupraTV processora are at the heart of new families of cable set-top boxes from Xoceco, now shipping into the Chinese market
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Zoran’s SupraTV processor is now powering new families of cable set-top boxes from Xoceco, now shipping in the Chinese market. Zoran is demonstrating the Xoceco DM518 set-top box products along with its newest digital television products and platforms for consumer electronics manufacturers in Hall 1B, Booth B163 at the China Cable Broadcasting Network 2007 conference (CCBN) in Beijing.

‘Zoran’s SupraTV processor has proven an excellent choice for developing our China Cable set-top boxes, which Xoceco is now shipping in Xiamen Cable’, says Mike Zheng, Vice President R and D and General Manager at Xoceco.

‘Working with Zoran allows us to deliver high-quality, cost- effective set-top boxes at affordable consumer price points’.

‘We expect our partnership to continue to deliver new products for the growing China Cable set-top box market’.
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‘Zoran, as a leading developer of new technology for the digital set-top box market, is pleased to support Xoceco’s established sales channels and its reputation as a high quality supplier of large-volume consumer products’, says Andrew Gane, Senior Director, digital television product line at Zoran.

‘These new products are a result of our previously announced joint lab collaboration including digital television products based on Zoran’s processors’.

‘All indications point to strong growth in the cable and terrestrial markets served by Xoceco’s products using Zoran’s SupraTV and SupraHD processors’.

Xoceco’s Zoran-based cable set-top boxes deliver: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) - cable and MPEG2-compliant audio and video decoding; a seven day electronic programming guide (EPG), multilanguage on-screen display (OSD), cable channel autoscan, DVB-subtitles, OSD teletext decoding, software updates via over-air-download and serial port.

They also support composite + s-video outputs, stereo audio and audio output via S/PDIF, infra-red remote, RF input and loop-through.

Xoceco’s China cable set-top boxes also support the most popular conditional access and data browser software.

32bit controller enables implementation of the FlexRay protocol without the need for companion devices
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Fujitsu Microelectronics has introduced the MB91F465XA FlexRay controller. Designed for driver-assistance applications, the MB91F465XA is built around a Fujitsu FR 70 32bit CPU, with an internal clock speed of 100MHz and voltage range of 3.0 to 5.5V. Based on the E-Ray core licensed from Robert Bosch , the device uses VHDL code certified by TUV Nord, supports 2-channel and FIFO operations, and also supports 218 different identifiers by providing more than 8Kbyte of message buffer memory.

The controller enables implementation of the FlexRay protocol without the need for companion devices, providing an easy-to-use system for automotive OEM, tier-one and third-party companies delivering tools and software for automotive applications or test equipment.

The MB91F465XA complements standard automotive buses, including the Controller Area Network (CAN) and Local Interconnect Network (LIN).

FlexRay-based technology provides approximately 10 times the throughput of CAN, and is expected to gradually replace CAN as automakers and their suppliers adopt x-by-wire solutions.

In addition to the two-channel FlexRay bus interface, one I2C, two CAN and three LIN-USART interfaces are incorporated onto the controller, enabling communication with all automotive bus systems.

The MB91F465XA is a member of the MB91460 series, so it is designed specifically to let engineers re-use their software across different family members and applications.
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The MB91F467B is designed in co-operation with major automotive customers and includes powerful peripheral functions and features to support a wide range of automotive and industrial applications

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A development platform for automotive and industrial motor-control applications built around a 32bit microcontroller is designed to simplify development of three-phase motor-control systems

The device operates from a single supply ranging from 3 to 5.5V.

Internal frequencies up to 100MHz are generated via the on-chip PLL using external 4MHz quartz crystals as the clock input.

A total of 544Kbyte of Flash memory with read-out protection and 32Kbyte of RAM is available, making the MB91F465XA meet AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) requirements.

Other features include hardware watchdog, 17-channel 10bit ADC, reload timer, stopwatch function, and an RTC module that can operate on external 4MHz or 32kHz quartz crystals.

The new controller is part of Fujitsu’s ‘FlexRay Made Easy’ program, which includes the hardware, driver and operating systems software, application software, development tools, and support required for application development, according to Akio Nezu, Senior Manager, Embedded Solutions Business Group, Fujitsu Microelectronics America.

‘This new FlexRay MCU represents the latest step forward in our program to deliver complete FlexRay solutions as this important new communications standard emerges in the automotive market’, he says.

Fujitsu, an active member of the FlexRay consortium since 2002, is also a member of AUTOSAR and Jaspar, the standardisation organisations for the automotive industry.

Through these organisations, FlexRay-related product development is accelerating.

Samples of the MB91F465XA are available in 100-pin FPT packaging with prices starting at US $8.27 each.

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The Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and STMicroelectronics are co-operating on the development and commercial exploitation of processors, based on Loongson-2E IP developed by ICT. The first-generation product, Loongson 2E, which is now sampling with selected customers, delivers world-class performance and optimised power consumption at a compelling price point.

The co-operation between ICT and ST was started in 2004 in the framework of the France-China Technology Co-operation (CTIBO).

Within the project, ICT is responsible for the architecture and the design of the processors, and ST supplies the technology process, manufacturing and sales.

ICT and ST will jointly promote the processors into the Chinese market.
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Under the present license agreement, ICT grants to ST the rights to manufacture and sell worldwide the processors developed within the co-operation for five years.

Dr Li Guo Jie, Director of ICT said: ‘The Loongson CPU R and D project is a demonstration of China’s innovative capability’.

‘ICT is not only focused on the research and development of core technology, but also on the commercial licensing of its IPs’.

‘The licensing by a foreign company of the Loongson 2E IP proves that ICT has successfully placed China on the world’s technology competitive stage’.

‘Through the co-operation with ST, the commercialisation of this technology is shortened with great market potential’.

‘ST is very proud to co-operate with ICT, the most advanced R and D centre for computer design in China’.

‘This joint effort combines ICT’s outstanding capabilities in advanced processor design with ST’s leading-edge technology and world-class manufacturing machine’, said Gian Luca Bertino, General Manager, Computer Peripherals Group and Corporate VP at STMicroelectronics.

‘The Loongson family of processors delivers impressive performance and low power for a variety of applications’.

The Loongson processors will be based on advanced superscalar 64bit architecture that is compatible with MIPS64 architecture from MIPS Technology ST has acquired a full license to the MIPS64 architecture as part of the Loongson programme.

Atmel Corp has added 512Kbyte dual-bank Flash memory extensions to its AT91SAM7S, SAM7X and SAM7XC microcontrollers based on the ARM7TDMI processor core. Doubling the Flash memory density from 256 to 512Kbyte gives software engineers the capacity to integrate new features for their next-generation products and true in-application programming at an additional cost of less than 20%. The Flash memory on the AT91SAM7S512, SAM7X512 and SAM7XC512 is arranged in two separate banks that allow the device to be programmed simultaneously with application execution.

A dual-bank implementation protects the application against potentially catastrophic failure resulting from unexpected power outages during firmware updates.

Increasingly complex communication protocols, data throughput and streaming content used in networked embedded systems require ever-larger amounts of data buffers and higher levels of security.

To meet this need, Atmel has doubled the density of the zero-wait-state, 32bit wide SRAM on its AT91SAM7X512 and SAM7XC512 from 64 to 128Kbyte.

Like all of Atmel’s SAM7 MCUs, the new devices have 11 to 13 dedicated peripheral DMA channels (PDC) that increase on-chip bandwidth from a maximum of 4Mbit/s, on conventional ARM7 MCUs, to 25Mbit/s or more.

By offloading peripheral-to-memory transfers from the CPU, the PDC actually increases the number of CPU operations available to the application.

This capability is unique to Atmel microcontrollers.

Another derivative, Atmel’s AT91SAM7XC, provides ‘top secret’ encryption capability by integrating a hardware crypto engine that can be configured to do 128, 192 or 256bit (’top secret’) AES or triple-DES encryption.

According to Jacko Wilbrink, Atmel’s ARM MCUs Product Marketing Director: ‘While the smaller SAM7S series, starting with 32 to 512Kbyte of on-chip Flash, is dominant in the consumer space for applications like USB-enabled PC accessories and toys, the SAM7X family, with on-chip Ethernet and CAN, is winning market share in telecom infrastructure, medical, building automation and alarm systems’.

Analog Devices is expanding its Blackfin line with the ADSP-BF52x family, a scalable series of processors optimised for performance-demanding portable applications including portable media players (PMPs), voice over IP (VoIP) phones, IP cameras and mobile TV devices. Advancing the dynamic power management capabilities of Blackfin to achieve the line’s best power efficiency yet - as low as 0.16mW/MHz core power at 250MHz - these newest processors offer system designers a breadth of choice with a high-performance/low-power series (ADSP-BF527/BF525/BF522) operating at 600MHz, and an ultra-low-power series running at up to 400MHz. All incorporate Blackfin Lockbox Secure Technology to provide capabilities for implementing the next generation of security - for uses that range from safeguarding intellectual property to protected e-commerce and social networking - on digital media devices.

‘The new Blackfin processors enable developers to flexibly create their next generation of battery-conserving portable products’, said Will Strauss, President of DSP market watcher Forward Concepts.

‘With Blackfin, a system designer can choose the right profile for his application at the appropriate price’.

‘The Blackfin value proposition and its scalable performance let developers differentiate their products with features that will be most appealing to consumers’.

To minimise bill-of-materials (BOM) cost, development time and board size, options for integrated system peripherals on the Blackfin ADSP-BF52x include High Speed USB On-The-Go (OTG), 10/100 Ethernet, host DMA port, NAND Flash controller, up to 48 general-purpose I/O (GPIO) ports, and more.

Additionally, ADSP-BF527C/BF525C/BF522C versions feature an embedded, low-power stereo audio codec for use in space-constrained applications such as PMPs and IP phones.

‘This newest branch on the Blackfin family tree offers the performance associated with high-end media players at the cost structure of MP3 player chipsets’.

‘The performance, power, and price advantages of the Blackfin BF52x family expand designs to enable a rich feature set’, said Jerry McGuire, Vice President, General Purpose DSP, Analog Devices.

‘And as portable media devices become more networked and communicate peer-to-peer, our Lockbox Secure Technology helps developers implement a range of security measures for different usage models’.

The Blackfin ADSP-BF52x uses internal voltage regulator and process improvements to enhance the Dynamic Power Management capabilities of Blackfin, which scale power consumption on-chip to match the MIPS necessary for the function being executed at the time.

The range of the BF52x family provides developers a spectrum of choice to match the MIPS capacity, power consumption, and price point suited to their particular applications.

With the USB port option, the BF52x media processor is geared to portable applications such as premium audio players.

Versions with fewer system peripherals are optimised for use as media coprocessors that allow designs to be augmented with additional functionality; for example, enabling video processing to be added to an audio media player.

With its power-efficient signal processing and the availability of peripherals that enable glueless connectivity to Ethernet and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g modules, the new Blackfin BF52x family provides capabilities well-targeted for battery-powered VoIP phones and IP-connected cameras.

The BF52x family incorporates Lockbox Secure Technology, a combination of hardware and software mechanisms that provide the means for developers to implement security measures that range from safeguarding secrets such as OEMs’ intellectual property, to verifying the identity of devices and users for protected e-commerce and social networking, to digital rights management (DRM) content protection.

More specifically, Lockbox Secure Technology provides one-time programmable (OTP) memory and a secure processing mode (Blackfin Secure Mode) to enable these capabilities.

Its public, nonsecure, user-programmable area of OTP memory is suited for storing public keys to authenticate the system in a manner that is controllable and configurable by the developer.

A private, secure, user-programmable area of OTP memory lets developers program their own private device assets such as private keys, and maintain the confidentiality and integrity of those assets.

Furthermore, using Secure Mode on Blackfin allows systems to be implemented in which only authenticated, trusted code is allowed to execute on the processor within a secure processing environment.

‘We are pleased to work with Analog Devices to create designs based on their new Blackfin processor family and our Wi-Fi semiconductor solutions’.

‘As a result, we can now provide product developers with a comprehensive low-power and small form-factor solution specifically designed for power-sensitive embedded products such as media players, handsets, and other consumer devices’, said Jayant Somani, Director of Wireless Marketing for Conexant Systems, a Newport Beach, California company that supplies semiconductor solutions for broadband communications and the digital home.

‘ADI continues to be at the forefront of media player innovation, and we were pleased with their overall approach to heightened performance and security’, said Darrell Blegen, Director of Glanceable Devices at Microsoft.

‘We are pleased that ADI promotes the use of the NET Micro Framework and our overall glanceable user interface’.

‘RadioScape has selected the Blackfin family of processors as one of its latest technology platforms because it provides outstanding performance yet keeps power consumption low to maximise battery life’, explained John Hall, CEO of RadioScape, the London-based developer of end-to-end digital audio and video broadcasting solutions.

‘It will enable us to create a whole new generation of innovative products for digital radio and mobile TV’.

‘In deploying new services and content, we are looking to Blackfin because we are very pleased with the performance, value, and support’, said Stuart Cox, VP Advanced Development at XM Satellite Radio.

The maturation of a marketplace is not based on ‘divide and conquer’ but on ‘consolidate and prosper’. This well-understood stage in a market’s development is now happening in the area of microprocessors, and companies such as Luminary Micro in the USA and Alpha Micro in the UK are capitalising on this trend. In the early stages of a market, disparate technologies develop, sometimes haphazardly, under the pressure of newly identified needs.

As these requirements become more clearly defined, the market becomes more structured and technological innovation gives way to volume growth.

However, in these early stages, the market is still very fragmented, with no supplier holding a dominant share.

Eventually, some companies emerge as principal suppliers; in some cases, the few become dominant as an oligopoly, or one may even become the sole monopolistic supplier.

Remember the computer market?

As it grew to maturity by the late 1970s, the list of computer suppliers included Honeywell, Sperry, Burroughs, DEC, Data General, IBM, Cray, Amdahl - to name but a few.

Each had its own underlying architecture, which ultimately consolidated to one - the x86 - by the mid-1990s.

The cost of supporting the total ecosystem (software, tools, applications, support etc) was a significant factor in the consolidation to what we now know ubiquitously as the ‘PC’.

The same evolution occurred in the embedded (noncomputer) microprocessor market.

In the early 1990s, the embedded microprocessor market featured solutions based on x86, i960, 29K, SPARC, MIPS, ARM, 68K, PowerPC and others.

This market has consolidated dramatically with ARM market share exceeding 80%.

More than 2.3 billion ARM-based embedded processors are shipping each year.

The embedded microcontroller market is a huge market with over US $26 billion in annual revenue.

It is also extremely splintered, with more than 40 suppliers feeding in excess of 50 architectures into the market, yet no single architecture holds as much as 5% share.

This market is a good example of one that has grown very big while still remaining fragmented - thus far.

With the introduction of the ARM Cortex-M3 core, first brought to market in Luminary Micro’s Stellaris MCUs, the stage is set for disruptive forces to consolidate this last silicon processor frontier.

Like the computer market’s consolidation, software and ecosystem play a significant role in the consolidation of the microcontroller market.

Time to market is invariably driven by the software in an embedded design with over 48% of production costs attributed to software (VDC).

Together, Luminary Micro and ARM have the answer to the embedded software developer’s dilemma - complete compatibility from US $1 to 1GHz, a range unequalled.

With entry-level devices at just $1, Luminary Micro’s Stellaris MCUs provide ARM-compatibility for the same price as current 8 and 16bit solutions, while providing significantly more performance.

The Cortex-M3 core dramatically extends ARM7 capabilities for MCU applications.

Stellaris Cortex-M3 MCUs provide a two-fold improvement in interrupt performance, and a four-fold improvement in MCU control applications.

In addition, the compact architecture of the Thumb2 ISA needs only half the Flash code space as ARM7 applications.

Stellaris MCUs appeal to the embedded market in other compelling ways: in addition to the many performance, price, and functional advantages of Stellaris MCUs, ARM enjoys the broadest knowledge-base of any core in the world.

The ARM community has the industry’s leading tools and software together with the most vibrant third-party ecosystem.

Importantly, being part of the ARM community gives developers access to hundreds of third-parties, reduced development costs and increased efficiency.

The openness of ARM is the catalyst that allows Stellaris MCUs to extend the ARM architecture into the wider 8 and 16bit market.

This is the disruptive force that begins the MCU consolidation.

Although this process may take years, during which embedded systems designers and end-users of embedded systems will reap the rewards of increased market competition, the consolidation will happen as it did elsewhere.

At both Luminary Micro and Alpha Micro we recognise the fundamental market need for this disruption, and have dedicated ourselves exclusively to accelerating this transition.

Tensilica has announced that Tallika of Mesa, Arizona, is now an authorised Design Centre partner for customers using the Xtensa configurable processor in their system-on-chip (SOC) designs. Tallika offers concept-to-production professional services serving OEMs in networking, consumer, storage and computing markets as well as digital and mixed-signal semiconductor companies. ‘Tallika’s expertise in micro-architecture design, information security, embedded software and verification will be very appealing to our customers’, stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica’s vice president of marketing.

‘They specialise in engagements with start-up companies in emerging markets, and provide years of valuable expertise to speed these companies through their SoC design experience’.

Tallika’s design services are complemented by its silicon proven IP portfolio.

For example, Tallika’s Silicon Proven Secure SOC Prototyping Platform is based on Xilinx Virtex4 family and includes AES 128/192/256 (various modes), SHA-1/SHA-256/MD5/HMAC-SHA1/HMAC-SHA256, TDES, link-list DMA controller connected to AHB back-bone along with 2048bit native Exponentiation engine on the APB bus.

The platform comes with full software library/API for security functions as well as public-key cryptography functions such as RSA-encrypt, RSA-decrypt, RSA-generate etc.

The platform’s applications include digital rights management, hardware authentication, secure media access, VPN/SSL acceleration, etc.

‘Tensilica’s Xtensa configurable processors are ideal for a number of our customers’ application-specific designs because they can be tailored precisely for the application at hand’, stated Hemi Bhatnagar, President and CEO, Tallika.

Texas Instruments is making available a production-ready software reference design for digital still cameras (DSCs), based on DaVinci technology. Manufacturers can use the reference design to bring the type of burst capture performance found today only in digital single-lens reflex (D-SLR) cameras to low-cost, point-and-shoot digital cameras. In addition, by enabling high-definition (HD) video on digital cameras priced as low as US $99, TI is setting a new bar for DSC performance at competitive retail prices.

TI’s DSC design includes a highly flexible processor, software with enhanced post-processing algorithms and development framework.

The new reference design includes production-ready software for a completely functional digital camera, complete with scene modes, colour settings and various advanced features.

It also includes a suite of development tools, software and technical support.

In collaboration with Micron Technology, TI offers a version of the reference design that makes use of Micron’s 8Mpixel CMOS image sensor to achieve full 8Mpixel resolution frame rates in excess of 5frame/s.

Using the Micron CMOS imager and TI’s powerful processor based on DaVinci technology, burst capture modes are at least twice the performance found in the fastest CCD-based, point-and-shoot cameras today.

In addition, Micron’s sensor combined with TI’s reference platform delivers a low-power design with 720p (progressive) 30frame/s HD video capability.

TI is working to bring these new experiences to point-and-shoot digital cameras, creating life-like visualisation for consumers to enjoy for years to come.

‘We are pleased to work with TI, providing a platform for camera manufacturers to design high-definition and high-resolution systems with D-SLR and HD camcorder capabilities for low-cost, point-and-shoot cameras’, says Suresh Venkatraman, Director of Marketing for Micron’s digital camera and camcorder segment.

Exploiting TI’s new DSC reference design, original design manufacturers (ODMs) now have the ability to bring advanced features to the low-cost digital still camera market.

Consumers will benefit from real-time video stabilisation, face tracking at 30frame/s and rapid red-eye removal in less than 0.5s.

The platform includes features that will simplify consumer usage, allowing them to always take great pictures and video.

A high-performance noise filter that processes greater than 10Mpixel in one second, allows consumers to capture better pictures at high ISO-10000, in low light environments.

Faster power up time, shot-to-shot and instantaneous preview and playback are just a few more features made available to cameras that use the new DaVinci technology reference design.

‘It is very exciting to see the class of products that our customers are introducing today using our DSC solution based on DaVinci technology’, says Marcelo Vieira, General Manager, digital imaging group, TI.

‘TI’s extensive experience in the DSC market allows us to deliver an unmatched level of performance in the point-and-shoot category, without compromising quality’.

The new reference design features a digital media processor based on DaVinci technology, is optimised for the digital camera market and may be beneficial for other digital imaging consumer electronics such as camcorders, digital photo frames, solid state digital video recorders, photo printers, video surveillance systems and many more.