Freescale unveils new family of programmable DSPs

Bangalore: Freescale Semiconductor has introduced a family of programmable digital signal processors (DSPs) that promises to deliver the optimal blend of low cost and high performance for a broad range of applications in the medical, aerospace/defense and test/measurement markets. The MSC825x family of scalable DSPs is based on the Freescale's SC3850 StarCore DSP core.

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The new MSC825x family of multicore DSPs brings the performance of the SC3850 core to additional applications that require high performance, reusable hardware platforms and flexible software architectures. Freescale's MSC825x family consists of four pin-compatible, fully programmable, single-, dual-, four- and six-core DSPs. Integrated features such as multiple DDR controllers, two Serial RapidIO interfaces and a PCI Express interface make designing with the MSC825x devices flexible. Pin and peripheral compatibility with Freescale's MSC815x family enables code and tool reuse and allows customers to scale from a single-core device to multicore devices, or to create multiple products based on the same hardware.

"With the introduction of the MSC825x DSP family, we are extending the value of Freescale's high-performance StarCore technology to additional customers in high-growth markets," said Scott Aylor, General Manager and Director of DSP products for Freescale's Networking and Multimedia Group.

The MSC825x family's processing performance enables additional channels for TETRA base stations, as well as advanced measurement capabilities for wireless communication testers. At the high end of the family, the MSC8256 device is based on six SC3850 StarCore DSP cores running at 1GHz on a single die delivering 6GHz of raw DSP performance, or 48 GMACs (Giga Multiply and Accumulate) per second of DSP core performance. Pricing for the MSC825x DSP family starts at a suggested resale price of $75 in quantities of 1,000. Samples are planned for Q2 2010, and production is planned for Q3 2010.