New Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processing Technology Transforms Concepts to Reality
HOUSTON (Oct. 13, 1997) -- Texas Instruments (TI) (NYSE: TXN) disclosed today the addition of the floating-point branch of its TMS320C6x digital signal processor (DSP) family, which was announced in February. The TMS320C67x is the first DSP core to offer peak performance of one billion floating-point operations per second (1 GFLOPS), which will enable applications requiring powerful analysis such as space exploration, realistic virtual reality and next-generation medical imaging.
TI's new 'C67x core offers ten times the processing power of current floating-point DSPs. With 1 GFLOPS performance, the 'C67x will perform one floating-point calculation every one billionth of a second -- or roughly the time it takes light to travel one foot.
Devices based on the 'C67x core -- as part of DSP solutions with complementary devices like mixed-signal/analog chips -- will shift the highest precision real-time applications of the future into integral parts of our everyday lives.
"In the 15th anniversary of our first DSP, TI is proud to unveil technology that provides the power for the electronics industry to forge ahead with exciting new DSP-enabled applications for the 21st century," said John Scarisbrick, senior vice president, TI Semiconductor Group. "With performance at this level, opportunities are restricted only by the limits of the imagination."
The floating-point 'C67x will remove limitations for performance-hungry markets like imaging, graphics and audio. The 'C67x will enable applications like:
- Telescopes with the power to discover new worlds too remote or tiny to see using current technology
- Classroom field trips to the Egyptian pyramids via virtual reality so real children experience the look and feel of an ancient civilization
- 3D graphics and voice recognition for personal computer interfaces, helping users break through impersonal, flat monitors and applications
- Entertainment and training featuring object interaction -- movement, bounces and crashes -- mimicking the real world and immersing users in new environments
- Higher-resolution, more cost-effective medical imaging techniques, enhancing diagnosis and availability in hospitals and clinics
With the introduction of the 'C67x, TI fulfills the promise of the world's most powerful and first fully compatible DSP generation, the 'C6x. The 'C6x addresses all kinds of performance and processing demands and maximizes customer investments in tools and code development.
TI offers electronics manufacturers a choice between fixed-point TMS320C62x and floating-point 'C67x and related devices and expertise. In addition, innovations like 'C67x help manufacturers bring the benefits of next-generation applications to market faster than previously possible with the help of easy-to-use development software and hardware from TI and its extensive third party network.
DSPs are specialized number-crunching semiconductors designed to analyze data in real-time -- or as they occur in nature -- in a wide range of products. Current applications include digital cellular phones, modems and a variety of other consumer and industrial electronics. Floating-point DSP devices focus on fine-tuned accuracy and a tremendous range of numbers. By comparison, fixed-point devices are like basic high-performance engines and floating-point like turbo-charged racing versions. Each is uniquely suited to specific price and performance conditions.
Based on TI estimates, the average technology consumer already touches a DSP-enabled product every ten minutes. TI projects the worldwide market for DSP solutions will grow more than ten times to about $50 billion over the next ten years. TI will continue its leadership in this growing market through innovations like the 'C67x.
TI currently leads the DSP industry with more than 30,000 customers in a market growing at more than 40 percent per year, significantly outpacing the growth of the overall semiconductor industry. According to market research firm Forward Concepts, TI is the leader in the DSP market with about a 45 percent market share. Market analyst Dataquest shows TI as the number two supplier in the diverse mixed-signal/analog market that is so important to DSP solutions.
For more information, visit the TI 'C67x World Wide Web address at http://www.ti.com/sc/c67x. For the technical version of this release, please visit 
http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/news/1997/97062a.htm.
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