SAN JOSE -- Ceva has announced its next-generation audio DSPprocessor architecture and a family of four designs based on it. The CevaTeakLite-4 consumes up to 25% less die area and 30% less power than theprevious generation, the company claims.
TeakLite-4 can process a 256-point fast Fourier transform in1,500 cycles and run at up to 1.5 GHz in a 28-nm high performance mobileprocess, the company said. It can be implemented in as few as 100,000 gates fora low-end version or up to 280,000 gates for its current top-end variant.
The core sports a customizable instruction set. It comes inversions with up to four 16x16, 16x32, 24x24 or 32x32 multiply-accumulate units(MACs). The cores also support customizable instruction sets, data caches andAXI interfaces.
"We don't believe one size fits all anymore," said MosheSheier, a product director at CEVA. "You need application specific cores andinstructions for different market segments," he said.
Low-end versions of the new cores will handle basic audiocodec processing, typically in small standalone DSPs for handsets, tablets, PCsand TVs. High-end versions will tackle 32-channels of voice for multiplayervideogames, virtual surround sound processing for high-end audio subsystems andhigh-definition audio in a variety of systems.
High definition audio is already coming to 3G handsets withcodecs supporting 16 KHz audio signals up from just 8 KHz used in traditionalwired phones. Skype already supports a 24 KHz codec for high quality VoIP linkson PCs. The 3GPP standards group is expected to define a 16 or 24 KHz codec forvoice over LTE, said Sheier
Action has been brisk lately with new audio DSPs from AnalogDevices, MIPS, and Texas Instruments, said Will Strauss, principal of marketwatcher Forward Concepts (Tempe, Ariz). The relatively low speed audio DSPshelp save energy compared to processing audio, for example, on a fasterbaseband DSP, he said.
Currently, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and TI all use their own audioDSPs in their smartphone chip sets. Broadcom, Intel, Mediatek, Morning Star,Samsung, and Spreadtrum are among those that currently use Ceva audio cores inat least some of their chips.
Among Ceva's four new products, the TL410 has the smallestdie size and offers one 32x32-bit and two 16x16-bit MACs. The high end TL421sports cache controllers and a master/slave AXI system interface to link toon-chip CPUs or DSPs.
Low power versions of the cores will be available forlicensing before June. High performance versions will be available beforeSeptember.
This story was originally posted by EETimes.
