Set-top boxes designs are becoming increasingly complex. General-purpose CPUs and DSPs are strained to handle the complexity of these dataplane functions. However, the more complex the functions, the better Tensilica's processors perform. Just look at the design of a typical set-top box:
Tensilica's dataplane processors can perform the following functions:
Today's increasingly complex home entertainment systems include audio and video processing from a number of sources - and the set-top box is right in the middle, handling the signals as they come in coded in a number of popular formats. That's why there are over 50 software codecs that have already been ported to Tensilica's popular HiFi 2 Audio Engine - so you don't have to worry about it. The HiFi 2 Audio DSP has the horsepower to not just do the audio DSP functions, but also to handle some of the control tasks. It's a hybrid RISC-DSP architecture that is as equally well suited to general C-code tasks as it is to audio DSP workloads.
Tensilica has a total SD video encode/decode solution to simplify your design efforts. Our 388VDO video processor is programmable and has the necessary codecs (H.264, etc.) to beautifully display broadcast video.
If you're designing for HDTV, Tensilica's Xtensa DSPs can be used for video stream processing as well as video post processing for blocks such as scalars, de-interlacers and image filters. And Xtensa processors can provide the 2D and 3D graphic support required to drive the TV menu system.
Tensilica's Xtensa DSPs are used in digital TV tuners to do the hard stuff - including the Viterbi and Reed-Solomon decoding, the deinterleaving, and the derandomization. Wherever there are data streams that need to be quickly processed, Tensilica's DSPs are perfect because the datapath can be matched exactly the incoming stream for the most efficient real-time processing. That's why companies such as NuFront and AFA Technology picked Tensilica.
Tensilica's processors can be used both in the PHY and the MAC layer processing. Tensilica's cores can be used for efficient turbocoding, OFDM filers, FFT, and Viterbi engines. Anywhere there's lots of data to be processed, \'Tensilica\'s can be efficiently employed to handle the data stream.
Tensilica's processors can help you implement complex conditional access algorithms that shouldn't be hard wired because they may change over time. Conditional access allows for efficient channel blocking and control for the transmission of data, as well as encryption to help prevent digital piracy.
Digital Right Management (DRM) features embedded within commercially distributed music and video require complex decryption. Tensilica's Xtensa processors are ideal for a programmable solution so that, as standards change, you don't need to respin the chip.
Each subsystem often requires an embedded processor. Why not stay with Tensilica, and use either Xtensa processors to do the subsystem control?
Tensilica's efficient Xtensa architecture is ideal as the main application processor as well, controlling all of the other subsystems in the DTV design. If you need operating system support, we have that as well.
