DSPs Jack Up Multimedia Apps

Claiming to deliver the industry’s highest single-chip DSP performance and most scalable price-per-performance DSP platform, the CT3600 DSP family has introduced its first three members: the CT3608, CT3612, and CT3616. Starting at the top, the CT3616 can encode 16 real-time MPEG-4 channels at SIF resolution, 16 G.711 voice channels, perform complete IP packet encapsulation with a 10/100 Ethernet MAC, and provide an IDE or compact FLASH storage interface. Reportedly, it is the industry’s first programmable, DSP-based real-time D1 H.264 main-profile-video encoder for next-generation IP TV head-ends, surveillance DVRs, and media gateways. The family members differ only in the number of DSP/GPP cores and programmable I/Os they provide. The CT3608 handles eight and four DSP/GPP cores, respectively, and provides 128 programmable I/Os. The CT3612 offers 12 and six DSP/GPP cores, respectively, and includes 144 programmable I/Os. Lastly, the CT3616 includes 16 and eight DSP/GPP cores, respectively, also with 144 I/Os. The CT3616 will sample in June, with price starting at $72 each/10,000. The other two CT3600 members will sample in the third quarter at $40 each/10,000. CRADLE TECHNOLOGIES, Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 636-5000.