The product portfolio includes two digital signal processors (DSPs) for wireless communications, along with complementary standard-specific GSM software modules and mixed-signal devices (analog to digital and digital to analog converters). TI, the world's leading DSP provider with 43.2 percent market share*, estimates the digital signal processing solutions market to reach $10 billion by 2000.
The two DSPs, the TMS320C545 and the TMS320C546, provide the first single DSP solutions for next-generation cellular standards, such as half-rate Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). Until now, these complex standards required at least two DSPs, along with memory enhancements, to function effectively in cellular telephone sets. The devices also have the memory, performance and peripherals to support half-rate, enhanced full-rate, and enhanced variable-rate versions of other established standards-such as IS-54, IS-136, Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) and full-rate GSM.
The industry's first software for half-rate GSM communications was also introduced today. The availability of the software offers TI customers a solution today for half-rate GSM, saving years of development and shortening time to market for efficient, cost-effective applications employing the standard.
TI has also announced development of new baseband interface devices for the GSM and IS-136 standards. The two microchips being developed will enable system solutions with reduced cost, smaller size, increased reliability, and reduced power dissipation.
"We have found that the most important single factor in consumer satisfaction is longer battery life," said Gilles Delfassy, general manager of TI's worldwide Wireless Communications Business Unit. "These new products can help manufacturers of digital cellular telephones deliver the long battery life that users want, while also giving service providers the opportunity to take advantage of half-rate standards that can help them cut costs."
Though half-rate and enhanced full-rate communications standards are still being used on an experimental basis today, several factors suggest that telephone service providers will move toward these delivery systems in the near future. Half-rate applications of existing standards allow a service provider to pack twice as many telephone conversations into available bandwidth. That means a company can serve more customers without building facilities to provide additional transmission capacity.
Half-rate standards also open the door to the first practical applications in which voice and data-fax transmissions, for example-can travel over a single telephone line at the same time. Using half rate, a service provider can, in effect, split the telephone band so that voice moves over one half while data passes across the other half.
According to Delfassy, half-rate systems may also help telephone service providers address community concerns. "With full-rate standards, the only way a service provider can serve more customers is to build more transmission towers," said Delfassy. "Many communities resist the construction of more towers. Half-rate standards won't make the issue go away, but they can reduce the pressure on the service providers."
The core architecture of the TMS320C545 and the TMS320C546 DSPs is optimized to provide high levels of performance integration and to increase battery life in wireless terminals such as cellular phones and personal communications systems.
The devices operate at 2.7 volts and include three different powerdown modes that can cut power dissipation to as little as one milliwatt, for example, for GSM paging mode. 'C545 and 'C546 also have the processing power and large amount of memory required to execute half-rate applications.
Along with its new wireless DSPs, TI is now offering fully-tested, half-rate GSM software modules that run on the 'C545 and 'C546.
While GSM is just one of several standards that may be implemented in a half-rate configuration, it is widely used in Europe and Asia and may play a role in the introduction of personal communications services in the United States.
TI's half-rate GSM modules perform voice coding and decoding, demodulation, encryption, channel coding and decoding, interrupt handling and control and other functions. The software requires only 27 MIPS of processing capacity from TI's DSPs, leaving ample performance for such features as voice dialing, speaker phone and noise cancellation.
"When TI's half-rate GSM software runs on a 'C545 or 'C546, it operates so efficiently that it can easily implement all baseband digital signal processing functions, even for this fairly complex version of the standard," says Delfassy.
As part of TI's effort to support communications standards worldwide with complete DSP Solutions, TI also has begun development of mixed-signal devices optimized for various wireless schemes. These highly integrated devices will combine various baseband interface functions such as audio and digital control, which significantly reduces the number of integrated circuits (ICs) needed to implement these functions today.
TI has unveiled plans for chips to work with GSM and IS-136. The IS-136 device integrates a sleep mode timer that will help extend wireless system battery life because it will allow implementation of the various IS-136 paging classes without any additional hardware. Because the IS-136 device is backwards compatible with the IS-54 standard, it can function as the interface for either standard. The GSM chip incorporates the voiceband audio processing function, boosting system performance and eliminating the need for a stand-alone device.
Both of these devices are part of TI's roadmap for continued integration for digital telephone solutions. By integrating functions that formerly required several ICs, they will help reduce the cost and weight of digital cellular telephones while boosting battery life.
The TMS320C545 and TMS320C546 DSPs are currently sampling. Both devices are available directly from Texas Instruments only. Neither device is available through distribution.
The 'C545 is housed in a 128-pin thin-quad flat pack (TQFP) package. It is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 1995 at a 250,000-piece price of $28 each.
The 'C546 is packaged in a 100-pin TQFP. It is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 1995 at a 250,000-piece price of $26 each.
The baseband interface device for the IS-136 standard is in development and is scheduled for sampling in the first quarter of 1996. The baseband interface device for the GSM standard is in development and is scheduled for sampling in the first half of 1996.
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*TI's market share number according to DSP analyst Forward Concepts.
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