ByteTools’ Low-Cost Catapult Probe Supports Tensilica’s Processors

ByteTools’ Catapult JTAG probes are now available for Tensilica’s Diamond Standard and Xtensa configurable processors. The high-performance, low-cost Catapult devices work out-of-the-box with Tensilica’s software development tools, meaning that users need not install any additional software. Catapult probes interface to the standard XOCD 14-pin JTAG header, with Catapult EJ-1 offering an Ethernet host interface, and Catapult UJ-1 offering a USB host interface. For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_03_27.htm

Enuclia Picks Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio Engine for Flat Panel TV Chips

Enuclia Semiconductorselected the Xtensa LX processor with the HiFi 2 Audio Engine for its next-generation flat-panel TV integrated circuits. Enuclia is developing chips that produce the best possible picture on analog and digital televisions whether they are displaying standard or high-definition content.

“Our chips deliver outstanding picture quality, and now we can also deliver exceptional audio quality with Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio Engine,” stated Chip Burczak, CEO of Enuclia. “We were impressed with the HiFi 2 Audio Engine because of its small size and the ability to run codecs more efficiently than competing solutions. Tensilica has been a solid partner for Enuclia.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_03_06.htm

Stretch Selects Tensilica Xtensa LX Processor and HiFi 2 Audio Engine

Stretch licensed Tensilica’s Xtensa LX processor and HiFi 2 Audio Engine for use in their next-generation Software Configurable Processor. The Stretch S6000 family of processors is targeted towards audio/video applications and achieves unrivaled video processing performance using a dual issue, VLIW configuration of the Xtensa LX processor coupled with the second generation of Stretch’s Instruction Set Extension Fabric (ISEF).

Craig Lytle, Stretch President and CEO commented; “The ability to accelerate a target application for the Xtensa processor through the creation of Tensilica Instruction Extensions in real time, is key to achieving the breakthrough performance levels needed by today’s demanding audio/video processing applications. We are delighted to be extending our relationship with Tensilica into our new S6000 family and are tremendously excited about the performance levels we have been able to deliver in this platform.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_03_05.htm

New Energy Estimator Tool Guides Designers to Energy-Efficient SOC Architectures

To address the growing need to pro-actively reduce power consumption in embedded systems, Tensilica announced the Xenergy estimator, a unique energy estimator for both Xtensa configurable processors and Diamond Standard processors. By using the Xenergy tool to optimize for energy early in the SOC design cycle, designers can cut processor and local memory energy requirements by up to half by making intelligent design trade-offs.

“Xenergy will naturally appeal to designers of portable, battery-driven devices such as cellular phones and personal media players, but also to designers of complex SOCs in home entertainment and networking devices where heat is becoming a huge issue,” stated Chris Rowen, Tensilica’s president and CEO. “Tensilica is the first company to provide a realistic way to easily estimate the overall energy impact of different processor configurations and extensions together with application code tuning on each processor with its memory subsystem. The improvement in power at the architectural level is quite dramatic and productive, often dwarfing the power savings painfully achieved at the RTL and physical design levels.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_26.htm

Penstar Technology Licenses Diamond 330HiFi Audio Processor Core

Penstar Technology has licensed Tensilica’s Diamond Standard 330HiFi Audio Processor core for use in a new SOC design for cellular phones and personal media players (PMPs) conforming to China’s emerging Audio Video coding Standard (AVS). Penstar intends to be the first Chinese company to offer a low power chip that is fully compliant with AVS, following the successful release of its DS-1000 IC product, which is an AVS video decoder IC supporting both standard and high definition video applications for digital TV and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV). Penstar will use the Diamond Standard 330HiFi Audio Processor for both the audio and control functions in the SOC.

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_13.htm

Plato Networks Adopts Diamond 108Mini For Upcoming 10Gigabit PHY Design

Plato Networks has licensed the Diamond Standard 108Mini processor core for an upcoming 10 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer transceiver (PHY) chip design. Plato Networks is developing low-power, single-chip, 10 Gbps physical layer ICs for low-cost copper cabling based on the newly approved IEEE 10GBASE-T standard (802.3an).

“We needed the flexibility of a small 32-bit processor core for the evolving requirements of the 10 Gbps PHY market,” stated Pirooz Hojabri, vice president of engineering, Plato Networks. “The Diamond Standard 108Mini was the perfect fit from a size, power, code density, and cost perspective.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_12.htm

Tensilica to Showcase Mobile Phones Featuring Its Audio and Video Processors at 3GSM

Tensilica, Inc. will be showcasing mobile phones incorporating its audio and video processors at its booth at the 3GSM World Congress (Hall 2, Level 1, Booth 2.1A67) in Barcelona, Spain, February 12-15, 2007. Tensilica is the leading IP (intellectual property) supplier for mobile multimedia (audio and video) processor cores with its HiFi 2 Audio Engine, its Xtensa configurable processors, and its Diamond Standard VDO (video) family. Tensilica will showcase phones from Cingular, LG Electronics, Motorola, and Samsung that include Tensilica processor cores performing audio and video encoding and decoding.

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_07.htm

AM3D’s 3D Mobile Handset Audio Now Available for HiFi 2 Audio Engine

AM3D’s Zirene Audio Enhancement and Diesel Power MobileTM 3D Audio products are now available for Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio Engine and Diamond Standard 330HiFi processor core. Tensilica’s HiFi 2 Audio Engine with AM3D’s 3D audio will be demonstrated at the 3GSM Conference in Barcelona February 12-15 in Hall 2, Level 1, booths 2.1A67 (Tensilica) and 2.1B72 (AM3D).

“AM3D’s 3D audio products provide outstanding audio quality, 3D and special effects for mobile phones and portable music players,” stated Larry Przywara, Tensilica’s director of mobile multimedia products. “By adding AM3D’s audio software to our HiFi 2 product line, we can provide one programmable engine that runs all of the best-in-class audio software.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_06.htm

LG Electronics Licenses Tensilica’s Diamond Standard 330HiFi For High Quality Audio in Mobile TV Chipset

LG Electronics of Korea has licensed Tensilica’s Diamond Standard 330HiFi Audio Engine, the industry’s most popular audio processor core for cellular handsets. LG Electronics will use the Diamond Standard 330HiFi Audio Engine in next-generation mobile TV chipset designs.

LG Electronics currently uses Tensilica’s Xtensa processors for video and control processing in their Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) phone.

“We picked Tensilica’s Diamond Standard 330HiFi Audio Engine for three main reasons: low power, availability of a wide range of audio codecs, and our strong relationship with Tensilica’s technology in our DMB group,” stated Dr. Woo-Hyun Paik, Vice President of LG. “Tensilica’s Audio Engine is a proven solution, ready to drop into our next-generation designs.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_05_LG.htm

S2C Becomes Newest Tensilica Prototyping Partner in China

Tensilica announced a new SOC prototyping partnership with S2C Inc., a leading provider of innovative FPGA-based ESL (electronic system level) and SOC prototyping solutions with a rapidly growing presence in the China market. S2C has already deployed Tensilica’s Diamond Standard 108Mini processor core into its TAI Logic Module FPGA-based ESL platform, and is working on a reference design and demonstration platform for Tensilica’s popular Diamond Standard 330HiFi Audio core.

“S2C will be a valuable partner in helping us speed up the adoption of our Diamond Standard processors in China,” stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica’s vice president of marketing. “Customers will be able to rapidly evaluate and implement our processor cores into their SOC prototypes that can run at near-real time and real time speeds and accelerate hardware/software co-design.”

For more information, see http://www.tensilica.com/news_events/pr_2007_02_05_S2C.htm