Connecting Customers With the Real World
“High-performance analog is essential to TI's business.
Our close fit between digital and analog technologies makes
us a unique technology innovator—and a unique competitor in
the marketplace. We are dedicated to squeezing every drop
of performance out of our processes cost-efficiently to meet
our customers' requirements.”
- Lou Hutter, Director of Mixed Signal Technology
Development
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Digital signal processors (DSPs) and other digital devices
have to communicate to the outside world, and that world is
analog. Analog technology changes “real world” signals such
as light and sound into binary pulses and back again. Without
analog there would be no computers, cell phones, PDAs, digital
cameras, CDs, DVDs and other digital equipment, not to mention
the Internet and a host of digital communications services.
Texas Instruments understands the critical importance of
analog and invests in it significantly. Analog is an inherent
part of our business, from process research and development
through volume manufacturing and product delivery. Synergy
between digital and analog process development enhances both
technologies, establishing TI leadership in both digital and
analog and enabling us to meet our customers’ requirements
with a greater range of capabilities and cost efficiencies.
TI’s system solutions include analog processes and
products that are tailored to the requirements of every analog
block in the system.
Every system with a DSP or other processor requires analog
chips to receive and condition incoming analog signals, then
convert them to digital signals for the logic to process.
At output, other analog devices re-convert the digital signal
back to analog and amplify it for driving system interfaces
like visual displays, audio speakers, etc. If the system includes
a radio, analog functions designed for radio frequency (RF)
operation receive and transmit the wireless signals. Finally,
all the functions in the system, including the digital logic,
are powered by analog chips designed to handle the higher
voltages and currents associated with managing power from
batteries or the electrical grid.
Depending on system requirements, analog functions may be
discrete components; they may be integrated with other analog
functions; or, in some cases, they may be integrated with
the DSP or other digital logic. Integration decisions depend
on which technologies can be combined cost-efficiently without
sacrificing performance or power consumption. For example,
in a cell phone low power and low cost are critical, while
a base station demands top performance for greater channel
density. TI’s analog design teams focus on developing
products that meet the system requirements of all key markets.
Whereas, TI’s analog process development teams provide
the manufacturing technologies that make those products possible.
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