TI's industry-leading digital signal processing fuels high-growth markets

Digital signal processing and high-performance analog are the key technologies fueling innovative, high-growth applications for many of today's fast-growing markets such as digital wireless, digital video, broadband access, digital audio, high-resolution imaging and digital motor control. Texas Instruments has over 25 years of experience in real-time technologies, working with customers on thousands of different end equipments using TI DSP technology.

DSP is perfect for applications where users will not tolerate any delays. Special microprocessors - digital signal processors (DSPs) - can perform mathematical computations instantaneously with a high level of precision that makes them very well suited for real-time processing. TI's DSPs can be used to process a vast assortment of information, including sound, images and video.

In digital end equipments using DSPs, like a cell phone or digital still camera, analog chips act as translators to change sound or light - "real world" signals - into the 1's and 0's of the digital world. Then, the DSPs compress and process these digital signals instantaneously, altering and improving the signal. Analog chips on the other end translate the digital signal back into the "real world" so that people can understand the information. In a cell phone, the chips work like this:

Such DSP and analog combinations create solutions that make:

• Voice over Internet (VoIP) and Internet telephony (IP) possible
• the sound on cellular phones clearer
• video and Internet features possible on third-generation (3G) wireless phones
• music quickly downloadable via the Internet
• home appliances, such as washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners, quieter, "smarter" and more energy-efficient.
• video security solutions that can deter and help solve crimes and keep
  communities safer
• DSP and analog combinations create solutions that make medical imaging equipment more portable, affordable and allows for superior image quality, thus helping to take healthcare directly where it's needed to enable early and accurate diagnostics

TI is the established market leader in real-time signal processing with the number one market position in both DSP and analog. According to market analyst Forward Concepts, TI held 65 percent of the DSP market in 2007. Total DSP chip shipments in 2007 were down by some 6.7 percent to the $7.8 billion level. This year, Forward Concepts forecast of DSP chips is for a 7 percent increase in worldwide revenue. [Source: Forward Concepts – February 2008]

TI is dedicated to supplying its customers with the four keys to creating successful digital designs - code-compatible DSPs, SoCs and complimentary analog products, easy-to-use software and tools, 24-hour accessible support and in-depth systems expertise. TI combines software, support, high-performance analog advanced process technology and manufacturing capability with nearly two decades of experience in working closely with customers on the DSP-based designs and system requirements. TI's programmable DSPs are the only processors that can meet the low-power, high-performance functions required for real-time Internet applications today and tomorrow.

TI is delivering a broad selection of the world's highest-performance and most power-efficient DSPs and SoCs for applications requiring embedded processing.

Consumers are demanding products with more intuitive user interfaces, advanced graphics and the ability to connect any and all devices to the Internet. To empower these customer to address these demands, TI announced in early 2008 the availability of four new OMAP™ processors, based on the market’s first broad offering of the ARM® Cortex™-A8 core, providing an unprecedented combination of laptop-like performance at handheld power levels in a single chip.

OMAP technology has traditionally been focused for large wireless OEMs but with this announcement, TI is bringing this proven technology to mainstream developers. This new product line will spur a whole new generation of portable and low power applications including portable navigation systems, personal medical equipment, point of sale terminals, all types of internet appliances and basically, anything that needs high performance general purpose processing, graphics support, web browsing, advanced GUI interfaces, video, and seamless connectivity.

To focus on the needs of customers in the video market, TI launched its DaVinci™ technology, which is a signal processing-based solution tailored for digital video applications that provides video equipment manufacturers with integrated processors, software, tools and support to simplify the design process and accelerate innovation. The portfolio of DaVinci processors consists of scalable, programmable signal processing system on chips (SoCs), accelerators and peripherals, optimized to match the price, performance and feature requirements for a broad spectrum of video end equipments.

TI also offers a wide array of general fixed- and floating-point catalog processors targeted at a wide range of application areas such as telecom infrastructure, medical imaging and emerging markets. The programmable TMS320C6000™ DSPs operate at speeds up to 1.2 gigahertz (or 1,200 megahertz), and are driving processing-intensive applications such as VoIP infrastructure and broadband to the home. The programmable TMS320C5000™ DSPs require only 15 percent the power of the most power-efficient DSP available today, yet delivers five times the performance. The TMS320C55x DSPs are code compatible with the industry leading TMS320C54x™ DSPs. Targeted at applications that will combine voice, video and data, this chip's low power means that batteries will last weeks instead of days. TI is currently shipping multiple devices in the C5000™ DSP and C6000™ DSP platforms targeted for numerous applications.

TI’s C2000 DSP-based digital signal controller (DSC) platform combines control peripheral integration and ease-of -use of a microcontroller (MCU) with the processing performance and C efficiency of TI’s leading DSP technology. The platform provides both fixed-point and floating-point architectures and enables developers to design energy efficient, less expense applications such as motors, servers, telecommunications and networking infrastructure equipment, laptop computers, automotive radar, industrial equipment, solar inverters, wind turbines and a broad range of other products.

More than 50,000 customers worldwide have chosen TI's tailored software development environment so they can more easily and quickly integrate DSP into their systems. To get to market first and then evolve, customers using TI's eXpressDSP™ real-time software technology with the programmable TMS320™ DSP family can simply and affordably re-program, rather than retool and replace. Thousands of available products from the TI Developer Network make it easy for end-equipment manufacturers to quickly customize TI DSPs and bring innovative, next-generation products to market quickly.

Among all DSP vendors, only TI's code-compatible roadmaps give customers assurance that tomorrow's DSP technological breakthroughs will be congruent with today's design. Designers using software written for one TI DSP architecture will be able to use it on both previous and future TI DSP platforms, simplifying their design process and speeding time-to-market. Designers will not need to rewrite software each time they upgrade or change an application, which will significantly reduce their development time and enable them to enhance their customer loyalty and retention for TI's chip solutions.

TI DSP applications and markets (this is not an all inclusive list):

• Portable media players
• Video security systems
• Home theaters
• Digital TVs
• IP-set top box
• Digital still cameras
• Digital cellular phones
• Wireless base stations
• Cable modems
• Home appliances
• Hybrid and electric vehicles
• Medical imaging equipment
• Portable medical devices
• Solar inverters and wind turbines
• Emerging applications