In This Issue
Leading the Digital Revolution
15 years of DSP
Memory
Mixed-Signal and Analog
Networking
Wireless
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That's just a glimpse of innovative things to come as a result of the digital signal processor (DSP) -- a microprocessor specialized for handling vast amounts of data in real time. Texas Instruments introduced the first commercially viable DSP in 1982 and has led the industry in this technology since. TI's DSPs have risen in performance from 5 million instructions per second (MIPS) to 1600 MIPS, which means file downloading time on the Internet could be reduced from 10 minutes to less than five seconds. At the same time, DSP devices that cost hundreds of dollars when they were introduced in the early 1980s can now be purchased for U.S. $5 or less. For 15 years, TI's programmable DSPs have been making possible new developments in many areas including networking and the Internet, high-speed modems, wireless communications, speech recognition, audio and video imaging, set-top boxes, automobiles, hard disk drives and industrial control and manufacturing. Within the next 15 years and beyond, TI DSPs will be the catalysts in many applications that have yet to be invented. "The future of the digital world depends on DSPs," said Rich Templeton, TI executive vice president and Semiconductor Group president. "TI's semiconductor business is structured to provide TI customers not only with leading DSP technology and products, but also with the system-level DSP solutions needed to cut development time and enhance product applications." TI, the world's leading provider of DSP Solutions, supplies not only a broad portfolio of DSPs, but also analog, mixed-signal, memory and logic functions either discretely or integrated on a single chip along with a DSP core. For system manufacturers, sets of these interrelated functions, together with the necessary DSP development tools, provide a complete package that minimizes design complexity, saves time-to-market and enhances the potential for profit from a new product. Strengthening position Confident in the future of DSP, TI has strengthened its leadership position by acquiring companies with technologies that complement its DSP Solutions business. TI recently entered into an agreement to acquire Amati Communications Corp., a leader in digital modem technology known as Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL). The technology lets ordinary phone lines transmit data as much as 200 times faster than today's typical analog voiceband modems. Other acquisitions include Silicon Systems Inc., a leading design firm for mass storage systems; Tartan, a premier DSP software tools development company; and Intersect, a mass storage software company. TI's ongoing commitment to developing DSP solutions promises to increase its lead even further in a market predicted to grow to more than $12 billion by the year 2000. Providing new products, technology TI continues to distinguish itself in the DSP market with products that push the technology of DSP Solutions to new levels of performance and ease of development. The latest is the technology disclosure of the TMS320C67x core of floating-point DSPs -- the industry's first processor to cross into the 1-GFLOPS performance range. This advanced DSP, expected to be available the second half of 1998, will give system designers a 10-times performance improvement that will make possible applications requiring powerful analysis such as realistic virtual reality and next-generation medical imaging. The 'C67x announcement follows the early 1997 introduction of the TMS320C6x family of fixed-point DSPs. 'C6x DSPs and the new-generation 'C67x are based on VelociTI™, an advanced very-long-instruction-word (VLIW) architecture, which means they are capable of processing 1600 MIPS -- 10 times the performance of previous DSPs. In addition, they introduce a new, highly efficient C compiler that averages three times the efficiency of any DSP compiler on the market today based on a suite of DSP benchmarks. Adding resources TI's DSPs are supported by a disproportionate share of software programming resources. The company holds about a 45 percent share of the DSP market and has more than 70 percent of the world's DSP software engineers working on TI architectures. Another thriving value web around TI's DSP Solutions consists of third-party suppliers and universities. Third parties are software and hardware companies that give TI a competitive edge other DSP companies have not developed. And more than 900 universities worldwide are using TI's DSPs in various electrical engineering and computer science courses, which means that future genera-tions of hardware and software engineers will be trained and proficient on the TI platform. TI strengthened its competitive edge by establishing a $25 million university research fund and a $100 million capital venture fund to further accelerate the DSP market. With its solid foundation, TI will continue to lead in providing DSP Solutions -- the fastest growing and most profitable part of the semiconductor business. "Today our belief in DSPs is stronger than ever," said Michael Hames, Semiconductor Group vice president and worldwide DSP manager. "We're eager to see what changes our DSP technology will bring in the next 15 years in computing, communications, transportation and industry. Above all, we can be certain that DSP Solutions will play a major role in building the digital world in the new millennium."
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