Voice-Over-IP Phone Chip Finds Many Uses

A highly integrated IP-Phone VoIP chip has been introduced for Internet telephony and Multimedia Terminal Adapter (MTA) applications. It targets the small-office home-office (SOHO) and other cost-sensitive applications. Typically, suppliers of equipment to telephone carriers will be the customers for these IP-phone chips.

This single chip uses a DSP engine called VoiceDSP. It is fabricated on a customized ARC core and a tightly coupled custom-designed DSP hardware accelerator. The IP-Phone chip also incorporates a RISC host processor, Ethernet switch, and memory controller, along with a rich set of peripheral functions. The RISC host processor supports the embedded real-time operating system (RTOS), TCP/UDP/IP and RTP protocol stacks, signal protocols, jitter buffering, and device drivers. It also supports application software.

Two of the chip's 10/100 external interfaces support quality of service (QoS) based on the IEEE 802.1p and 802.1q standards. They are incorporated into the Ethernet switch. The IP-Phone also supports multiple peripherals, including a memory controller for Flash and SDRAM, UART, SPI, I²C, GPIO, keypad scanner, and LCD interface.

The reference-design board delivers a full solution for a typical system with two channels of voice and facsimile. The voice port interfaces to a headset or to a speaker, microphone, or handset. Other ports connect to a subscriber-line interface circuit (SLIC) for linking to analog phones or fax machines. That board includes an LCD screen and keypad.

The new IP-Phone chip with VoiceDSP includes a 3.3-V I/O with a 1.8-V core and JTAG interface in a 256-pin quad-flat package. Pricing starts at $12.00 in 10,000-unit quantities. The reference-design board and associated software also are available now.