Texas Instruments Korea (President Kent Jeon, www.ti.com/ww/kr ) March 30, 2012 – Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today introduced three new devices based on TI’s KeyStone multicore architecture leveraging the TMS320C66x generation of digital signal processors (DSPs), providing developers with the industry’s most power-efficient solutions without compromising performance or ease of use.
TI's new TMS320C665x DSPs feature a combination of fixed and floating-point performance, delivering high performance in real time at low power in a small form factor. TI's new TMS320C6654, TMS320C6655 and TMS320C6657 multicore DSPs enable developers to more effectively address the critical needs of high-performance and portable applications in markets such as mission-critical, industrial automation, test equipment, embedded vision, imaging, video surveillance, medical, and audio and video infrastructure. (For more information, visit www.ti.com/multicore .)

“TI’s new C665x DSPs provide an exceptional combination of performance and low power, especially for medical imaging products that require this type of functionality,” said Xin Li, technology manager, imaging product research, Mindray Medical International Limited. “The possibilities of these solutions will further our goal of improving patient care worldwide.”

Easier multi-core use at lower power and cost levels with high-performance DSPs
TI’s new C665x processors are based on the KeyStone multicore architecture, enabling developers to use devices that are high-performance yet still power- and space-efficient. Their low-power characteristics and small 21 mm x 21 mm form factor enable them to drive product innovation by supporting portability, mobility, low-power energy sources such as batteries, and interfaces. These unique capabilities of the C665x DSPs meet the needs of applications such as video security and traffic management that require both video processing and analytics at the end point. In addition, a wide range of high-performance, real-time applications such as on-board radar, software defined radio (SDR), video and image processing, and portable ultrasound can now be made smaller, lighter and easier to use.

“With this combination of performance, low power, and fixed- and floating-point processing capabilities, we are well positioned to meet the industry’s requirements,” said Weidong Chen, CEO of Suzhou Keda Technology Co., Ltd. “This combination provides much-needed design flexibility and time-to-market advantages without significant development costs. We look forward to working with TI to provide customers with cost-effective, low-power, high-performance solutions.”

TI's C665x processors are available starting at $30 each in 10,000-unit quantities and consist of three low-cost, power-optimized solutions that are fully pin-compatible to help developers migrate from single-core to multicore. Featuring two 1.25-GHz DSP cores, the C6657 delivers up to 80 GMACs and 40 GFLOPs of performance, while the C6655 and C6654 single-core solutions deliver up to 40 GMACs and 20 GLOPS of performance and 27.2 GMACs and 13.6 GLOPS of performance, respectively. Power figures for the C6657, C6655 and C6654 under typical operating conditions are 3.5 W, 2.5 W and 2 W, respectively. TI’s C665x DSPs also offer large on-chip memories coupled with high-bandwidth, efficient external memory controllers, making them ideal choices for developers of applications such as mission-critical, test, automation, imaging, medical, and audio and video infrastructure where low latency is critical.

“The latest additions to TI’s KeyStone platform provide a compelling solution that combines low power and high-performance signal processing in a very compact package,” said Will Strauss, president and principal analyst, Forward Concepts. “It’s a powerful combination that can support portability via long battery life or line power in advanced imaging, sensing and analytics-based applications – critical attributes for these applications. It’s exciting to see TI continue to innovate in this high-performance space.”

Meets the climate and outdoor requirements of process-intensive applications
The new DSPs support an extended temperature range of -55°C to 100°C for applications that must operate in extreme physical environments or provide consistent operating life. These features make the C665x DSPs ideal for mission-critical, outdoor imaging and analytics applications where high reliability is a key requirement. In addition, the C665x DSPs deliver rich performance and connectivity features to meet the stringent specifications of imaging applications, including high-bandwidth serial interfaces such as RapidIO, PCIe and Gigabit Ethernet, and can extend the processing power of available DSPs. An optimized peripheral set, including the Universal Parallel Port (UPP) and Multichannel Buffered Serial Port (McBSP) provided by TI’s C665x processors, reduces system cost and size, while allowing easy migration from previous designs with minimal board redesign.

Easy development support with complete tools and support
TI offers low-cost, easy-to-use evaluation modules (EVMs) to help developers quickly get started designing with the C6654, C6655 and C6657. The TMDSEVM6657 is priced at $349, and the TMDSEVM6657LE is priced at $549. Both EVMs include the free Multicore Software Development Kit (MCSDK), TI’s powerful Code Composer Studio™ (CCS) integrated development environment (IDE) and a suite of application/demo code to help programmers quickly accelerate development on the new platforms. Additionally, TI’s TMDSEVM6657L includes an embedded XDS100 emulator, while the TMDSEVM6657LE includes a faster emulator, the XDS560V2, for faster program loading and ease of use.

Additionally, the C665x DSPs are code compatible with TI's TMS320C64x generation and all TI KeyStone-based multicore processors, ensuring easy reuse of previous investments in TI DSPs. This flexibility allows developers to easily design a diverse portfolio of high-performance products that scale from low-end to high-end applications.

Supply period
Both the C665x EVMS and C665x devices are available for order now. The C6654 DSP is priced at $30.00 in 10,000-unit quantities.

TI Design Network
TI's Design Network is a global community of excellent, reliable companies that provide products and services that support TI DSPs. Their support solutions for C665x DSPs include:

Hardware partners: eInfochips, IDT
Software partners: ENEA, Polycore

More information
• TI’s C665x product bulletins and white papers
• Watch TI’s C665x introduction video and ‘Ask The Experts’ series
• Interact with engineers and TI experts in the TI E2E™ Community and Multicore Mix
• TI Twitter: www.ti.com/twitter
• TI Facebook: www.ti.com/facebook