In this Issue
TI's TMS320C6x pushes the envelope in:
performance,
time-to-market,
design support,
architecture
and tools

DSP Solutions:
  Is hardware holding you back?
  1997 'C6x Training

Other Stories:
  Video restoration on a multiple TMS320C40 system
  New DSP Starter Kit for high-performance 'C54 DSPs
  TI SC Group earns worldwide ISO 9001 designation for quality standards

Product Update
  RS-485 differential transceiver
  A/D converters
  FlatLink transmitter/receivers

Trade Shows

TI SC Group earns worldwide ISO 9001 designation for quality standards

Texas Instruments Semiconductor Group (SCG) has become the first major semiconductor manufacturer to gain ISO 9001 designation worldwide. This worldwide certification of SCG's quality processes and standards will help the group's customers reduce their qualification cycle times and get their products to market faster.

"This enterprise-wide certification assures our customers that we have world-class quality standards,"said Julie England, TI SCG vice president and quality manager. "At the same time, it recognizes the outstanding teamwork and cooperation over the years in establishing and enforcing those standards, thereby laying the foundation for worldwide ISO 9001 certification."

The worldwide ISO 9001 designation includes TI Semiconductor Group's three business units, 25 sites in 14 countries and more than 25,000 employees. Previously, SCG had been gaining ISO 9001 designation for each site independently. However, to maintain its status, each site submitted to an annual audit by third-party auditors, a task that was becoming a costly and unwieldy process. By gaining enterprise-wide ISO 9001 designation, TI will now be audited every six months at Semiconductor Group headquarters in Dallas, and each site will be audited once every two to three years.

Established in 1985, TI's extensive quality efforts extend beyond ISO 9001 to encompass more than 20 quality system standards defining TI Semiconductor Group requirements and key methods of producing semiconductors. In 1994, TI developed TI-BEST, a company-initiated business-improvement process based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria. This company-wide program is reaching into new areas of the business, such as marketing and finance, that never before have been required to define quality criteria, further improving TI's overall operations.

TI's aggressive quality strategy has been recognized worldwide for its success. TI has won the Deming Prize in Japan, the European Quality Award and the first ever Singapore Quality Award. TI's Defense Systems and Electronics Group won the Malcolm Baldrige Award in 1992.