Analog Devices

Analog Devices


SHARC

Targets: Audio, Automotive, Communication & Wired, Computers & Peripherals, Consumer, General Purpose, Imaging & Video, Industrial, Medical, Military & Aerospace, Mobile & Wireless, Motor Control, Security, Test & Measurement

Analog Devices SHARC Block Diagram

Analog Devices' SHARC processor family targets applications ranging from consumer, automotive, and professional audio, to industrial, test and measurement, and medical equipment. Based on a 32-bit floating/fixed-point core architecture, SHARC family members maintain a sophisticated memory and I/O processing subsystem. The code-compatible family spans from entry-level products priced around $5 to high-end products providing 450-MHz/2700-MFLOPS of signal processing performance. The SHARC family contains many pin-compatible members allowing for scalability to meet multiple price/performance targets.

SHARC processors include audio-specific and general-purpose peripherals. The SHARC's programmable SRU (Signal Routing Unit) is an architectural feature that enables flexible routing of peripherals, enabling peripheral blocks to be connected to each other or to external peripherals.

The 2146x family of SHARC processors, at up to 450 MHz/2700 MFLOPS, more than double the total computational performance of the previous SHARC generation. One key contributor to this performance increase is the addition of hardware accelerators for widely used signal processing operations: FIR (Finite Impulse Response), IIR (Infinite Impulse Response), and FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). Additional new features that substantially boost the performance of the SHARC 2146x include: an increase of 60 percent in on-chip SRAM up to 5Mbits, and a new Variable Instruction Set Architecture (VISA) feature that allows a reduction in instruction opcode size, freeing up as much as 30 percent of memory space for application code.

Faster I/O throughput is achieved by a high-speed DDR2 SDRAM external memory interface that effectively doubles the data transfer rate. For data transfers between multiple SHARC processors, link ports provide a parallel command interface for faster data movement than is enabled by the processors' serial peripheral interface (SPI). Like their predecessors, this generation of SHARC processors is based on a SIMD (single-instruction multiple-data) core that supports 32-bit fixed-point as well as 32-/40-bit floating-point arithmetic formats, making them suitable for high-performance applications. The 2146x family includes the 21469 (industrial temperature range packaging) for industrial and instrumentation; the 21469W, 21465W, and 21462W for automotive audio; and the 21467 for home theater.

The ADSP-2148x processor series offers high performance – 400 MHz/2400 MFLOPs – in an LQFP package and includes additional processing blocks such as FIR, IIR, and FFT accelerators to increase the total performance of the system. There is a new feature called VISA (Variable Instruction Set Architecture) that allows the code size to be decreased by 20% to 30% and increase the memory size availability. The fourth generation DSP allows the ability to connect to external memory by providing a glueless interface to 16-bit wide SDR SDRAMs.

The ADSP-2147x series offers very low power and high performance – 266 MHz/1596 MFLOPs – in a BGA and LQFP package. This low power capability makes the ADSP-2147x processors suitable for automotive audio and industrial control segments where low power is a requirement. In addition to its high core performance, the ADSP-21479 includes additional processing blocks such as FIR, IIR, and FFT accelerators to increase the total performance of the system. The ADSP-2147x series also features the VISA that allows the code size to be decreased by 20% to 30% and increases memory size availability.

The ADSP-21371 operates at 266 MHz and is available in a 208-pin QFP (quad flat pack) package. It offers 2-Mbit of Mask ROM and 1-Mbit of internal RAM with direct execution from external memory over a 32-bit SDRAM interface. The ADSP-21375 also operates at 266 MHz. It offers 2-Mbit of Mask ROM and 0.5-Mbit of internal RAM with direct execution from external memory over a 16-bit interface. The ADSP-21363/ADSP-21364 provide superior performance—333 MHz/2 GFLOPS—within the third-generation SHARC processor family.

The floating-point ADSP-21367/ADSP-21368/ADSP-21369, operating at speeds up to 400 MHz/ 2.4 GFLOPS, targets multichannel A/V receivers, professional mixing consoles, and digital synthesizers applications.

For consumer audio applications, the ADSP-21266, ADSP-21366, and ADSP-21367 are available with audio decoder algorithms from Dolby and DTS pre-programmed into the on-chip ROM. The ADSP-21362 and ADSP-21365 expand SHARC audio into the automotive arena by integrating an accelerator to perform DTCP (Digital Transmission Content Protection) for encryption/decryption of digital-audio data over automotive networks.