SHARC Processors Come With or Without Cortex Core

Analog Devices recently released two different varieties of higher-efficiency SHARC processors—one with an ARM Cortex-A5 core and one without.
June 25, 2015
2 min read

A new line of SHARC processors pushes peak performance beyond 24 giga-floating-point operations per second (GFLOPS). Thanks to two enhanced SHARC+ cores and advanced DSP accelerators (FFT, FIT, IIR), Analog Devices' ADSP-SC58x and ADSP-2158x processors consume less than 2 W at high temperature, and thus offer greater efficiency versus previous SHARC devices. The processors are suited for automotive, consumer and professional audio, multi-axis motor control, and energy-distribution-system applications.

With the addition of an ARM Cortex-A5 processor, the ADSP-SC58x devices can handle more real-time processing tasks and manage peripherals used to interface to time-critical data in audio. They can also be used for industrial closed-loop control and industrial sensing applications. Interfaces include Gigabit Ethernet, USB High-Speed, mobile storage (including SD/SDIO), and PCI Express. The Cortex-less ADSP-2158x family, which suits applications that need a DSP co-processor, includes the two SHARC+ cores and DSP accelerators with a peripheral set matched to the cores.

Both sets of devices are supported by Analog Devices' Crosscore Embedded Studio development tool suite. The company also collaborated with Micrium to offer µC/OS-II and µC/OS-III real-time kernels on both SHARC+ and ARM Cortex-A5 cores, as well as Micrium’s USB Host, USB Device, and file system stacks running on the Cortex-A5.

About the Author

Iliza Sokol

Associate Content Producer

Iliza joined the Penton Media group in 2013 after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a BS in Advertising and Marketing Communications. Prior to joining the staff, she worked at NYLON Magazine and a ghostwriting firm based in New York.

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