Processor Integrates ARM7 And DSP

With an eye on high-volume, high-end consumer products, the AT572D740 Diopsis enters the market as a dual processor system-on-chip, integrating an ARM7 processor, peripherals, and a mAgic complex domain, 40-bit VLIW floating-point DSP. Described as having a heterogeneous dual core structure that allows optimization of task partitioning and mapping on two different cores, the device exploits the 16-bit code density and efficiency of the ARM processor for control tasks and the GFLOPS performance of the DSP. The DSP has a program memory density of 4-bits per arithmetic operation on numerical kernels, and either processor can act as the master or slave, or both processors may operate simultaneously and independently. Overall, the device executes 15 operations per cycle and includes a 128-KB program memory that holds 24,000 cycles of compressed program cycles. Other features include two SPI ports, two USARTS, a timer counter, watchdog timer, parallel I/O port, peripheral data controller, eight a/d and eight d/a converter interfaces, clock generator, a power dissipation of 750 mW per GFLOP, and an interrupt controller. Price is $30 each/1,000. ATMEL CORP., San Jose, CA. (408) 441-0311.