Motorola Announces Industry's Highest Performance DSP

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today unveiled the newest addition to its family of StarCore-based DSP products, the MSC8102. Integrating four 300 MHz SC140 extended cores and 11.5 Mbits of on-chip memory, this new DSP delivers 4800 MMACS (Million Multiply Accumulates per Second) of performance, making it the highest performance DSP announced to date. The raw processing power of this highly integrated system-on-a-chip device will enable developers to create next generation networking products that offer tremendous channel densities, while maintaining system flexibility, scalability, and upgradeability. As with the other components of the Smart Networks Platform, the ease of programmability of the MSC8102 will also allow Motorola's customers to bring these products to market quickly, providing more time in market and minimizing development costs.

"Motorola's unique position in the industry allows us to offer Smart Networks Platform solutions for the entire spectrum of network connectivity, including communication, network, and digital signal processors," said Graham Haddock, Vice President and General Manager for Motorola's Wireless Infrastructure Systems Division. The MSC8102 is targeted at computation- intense infrastructure DSP applications including packet telephony media gateways, multi-channel modem banks, DSLAMs, and third-generation wireless systems.

The MSC8102 is an ideal fit for systems supporting the true convergence of circuit switched voice, fax, modem, and packet based protocols. In these types of high-density multi-channel applications, the MSC8102 is designed to support up to 8 ADSL channels; more than 60 universal channels (voice/fax/modem); over 80 compressed voice channels with over 64 millisecond carrier class echo cancellation; and up to 600 non-compressed (G.711) voice channels, a capability unmatched by any other DSP product today.

Taking full advantage of the scalable StarCore® core architecture, the MSC8102 combines four extended StarCore SC140 DSP cores, a sophisticated multi-level memory hierarchy, high-speed serial communication interfaces, a flexible system interface unit, and a multi-channel DMA engine with the industry's largest on-chip SRAM memory.

"This device promises outstanding performance, channel density, and low power operation," commented Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts. "It is far and away the highest performance programmable DSP chip announced to date. The 16 ALUs are truly impressive, and the on-board enhanced filter coprocessors (EFCOPs) can provide a significant boost to computationally intensive tasks such as echo cancellation. In fact, the 8102 has the potential to change the landscape for DSP applications in the networking space."

The MSC8102 is also designed to provide an optimal solution for 3G wireless base stations, to help eliminate many of the costly and power hungry ASICs and FPGAs required in today's systems for both symbol rate and for chip rate assist. In addition, the MSC8102 is designed to allow customers to add next generation features that make efficient use of available frequencies and higher bit rates in 3G systems.

"Motorola's new MSC8102 will provide a 'DSP Farm on a Chip' level of performance integration," commented Jack Quinn, President of MicroLogic Research. "This aggressive implementation of the StarCore technology will position Motorola extremely well in the wireless infrastructure market, especially in applications such as 3G base stations."

"The deployment of 3G wireless systems brings a host of processing challenges for DSPs," added Haddock. "The ultra high density and raw engine performance of the MSC8102 combined with our network-ready MSC8101 DSP will be a key differentiator for customers in this market."

Efficient application software development is key in Motorola's strategy to expedite customers' time to market. Since the MSC8102 is based on the same extended core as the MSC8101, developers can take advantage of currently available development tools and real-time operating systems (RTOS) from Metrowerks, a Motorola company, and third-party suppliers. In addition Motorola is working with third-party vendors to provide integrated systems solutions that include GSM, CDMA, TDMA, and ITU G.7xx speech coders, hybrid echo cancellation, fax, modem, and xDSL software.

Key Features and Benefits

Four 300 MHz StarCore SC140 DSP extended cores -16 ALUs on a chip deliver 4800 MMACS, 12 G RISC MIPS -Performance equivalent to a 1.2 GHz SC140 Core

Four 300 MHz EFCOPs -Maximizes number of channels; accelerates filtering operations such as echo cancellation

Industry's largest on-chip SRAM memory -1436 KBytes (11.488 Mbit) of on-chip memory operating at 300 MHz -Efficient multi-level memory hierarchy

Dual external industry-standard PowerPC[tm] (60x-compatible) buses -9.6 Gbps peak bus throughput

Four independent Time Division Multiplex (TDM) Interfaces -400 Mbps peak serial data throughput

Flexible memory controller -Accesses various external memories, including SDRAMs, SRAMs, SSRAMs, EPROMs, and Flash

32-channel on-chip DMA engine -Enables transfer of data to and from the core L1, the L2 memory, and the serial interfaces

The MSC8102 will be manufactured utilizing 0.13 micron copper interconnect process technology with an estimated power dissipation of 1.6 W (300MHz), all in a space-saving 18mm x 18mm or 16mm x 16mm Flip-Chip Plastic Ball Grid Array (FC-PBGA) package.

Availability

Initial expected sample date for qualified customers is third quarter of 2001. Unit pricing is estimated to be $181 for 10K unit volume purchases.

Additional Information

Additional information on this announcement can be found at www.motorola-dsp.com.

About StarCore

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the StarCore Joint Design Center is a cooperative research and development initiative between Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group and Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector created to define next-generation digital signal processor (DSP) core technologies. StarCore designs superior DSP architectures, cores, and development tools for the communications, consumer electronics and transportation industries. More information about StarCore is available at www.starcore-dsp.com.

About Motorola

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector offers multiple DigitalDNA(TM) technologies which enable its customers to create "smart" products and new business opportunities in the networking and computing, wireless communications, transportation, and imaging and entertainment markets. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.4 billion (USD) in 1999. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 1999 were $33.1 billion. http://www.motorola.com

MOTOROLA, the Stylized M Logo and all other trademarks indicated as such herein are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. (R) Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off." All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

Reader Contact:

David Baczewski, Motorola, 512.933.6911, david.baczewski@motorola.com

Editorial Contacts:

Mary Langen, Motorola, 512.933.8758, r2aaap@email.sps.mot.com

Phyllis Grabot, MS&L Global Technology, 805.230.8205, pgrabot@msltech.com

SOURCE Motorola SPS

CONTACT: David Baczewski, 512-933-6911, david.baczewski@motorola.com, or Mary Langen, 512-933-8758, r2aaap@email.sps.mot.com, both of Motorola; or Phyllis Grabot of MS&L Global Technology, 805-230-8205, pgrabot@msltech.com/