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Mobile Handset Processors and DSPs
Mobile Handsets: Complex Systems with Dozens of Processors and DSPs
Today's mobile phone designers need extremely low power, high-performance function blocks that are programmable to keep up with fast-moving standards. The latest mobile phones contain many processor cores - and many of those come from Tensilica. Be sure to check out Tensilica's design wins in mobile phones (below). Our Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) -- a unique combination of customizable processors and DSPs -- can be used in many places in mobile handsets.
- Audio processing
- Video and image processing and graphics
- Baseband PHY and MAC
- Other radio interfaces
- Imaging
- Fingerprint and biometric processing
- Security and decryption
- Embedded control processing
Designed into Millions of Mobile Handsets
Companies that have designed Tensilica's processors into chips that go into mobile phones include:
Architectural Considerations
Audio Processing
Audio requirements in mobile handsets range from low-power MP3 playback to higher performance multi-channel playback of pre-recorded media and even noise reduction, echo cancellation and virtual surround sound for speaker phones and headphones. The HiFi 2 Audio Engine covers all of the above, plus it can offload the main CPU with its remaining available processing power. It has the lowest power MP3 playback on the market, enabling 200 hour playback for portable media. And it supports all Dolby and DTS home entertainment standards, enabling advanced high-end handset design for mobile TV reception and personal media player functionality. Read more about our audio DSPs, which are designed into millions of cellular phones as well as higher end audio equipment.
Video and Image Processing and Graphics
Tensilica's processors are used for both control and computational function for graphics, image signal processing, video codecs and video pre- and post-processing. Tensilica offers:
- 388VDO Video Processor - a complete SD-level multiformatvideo encoder and decoder for Internet video format compatibility.
- Xtensa processor for HD video stream processing and embedded control
- Xtensa processor for 2D and 3D graphics engines
- Xtensa processors for video post processing - for embedded control and blocks such as scalers, motion estimation/compensation, de-interlacers, image filters, etc.
Baseband DSP
Conventional DSPs don't have enough horsepower for the complexity and multiple standards required for next-generation mobile radio standards like LTE and WiMax. But building dozens of accelerator blocks out of non-programmable RTL blocks is risky. A better alternative is to design your high-bandwidth software defined radio by building all or part of each functional block out of a optimized Xtensa processor. See our application notes on how you can build efficient turbocoding, OFDM, filters, FFT, and Viterbi engines from highly optimized Xtensa DSPs.
Local Area Radio Interfaces
Advanced handsets have multiple air interfaces. WiFi, Bluetooth and WiMax are usually implemented as separate subsystems consisting of both an embedded control CPU and one or more DSPs in the PHY and MAC layers - and our Xtensa processors can be used for both layers. Atheros is using Xtensa processors for Bluetooth. Other companies such as NEC, SiBeam and Design Art Networks, are using Xtensa processors for software defined radio.
Imaging
Use Xtensa customizable processors to meet the challenges of camera image pre-processing, filtering, stabilization, color correction, light processing - anywhere there's lots of customized signal processing. Tensilica's processors are used by Olympus, Sony, Nethra, and an undisclosed tier 1 imaging company.
Security and Decryption
It's essentail to implement complex security algorithms in a programmable engine to cost effectively address the multiple formats required in case these algorithms needs to be changed. By implementing software algorithms in a customized Xtensa processor, it makes it much more difficult for the chip to be pirated. Digital Right Management (DRM) features embedded within commercially distributed music and video require complex encryption/decryption. Tensilica's Xtensa processors are ideal for a programmable solution so that, as standards change, you don't need to respin the chip.
Fingerprint Processing
The growing use of biometrics for transaction processing - with electronic wallets - demands greater degrees of authentication. Several Tensilica customers are using Xtensa processors in biometric chips for control and signal processing.
Embedded Control Processing
Each subsystem in a modern mobile handset often needs a very small, efficient control processor with extensive IO capability to provide optimum I/O management. Tensilica's Xtensa processors are ideal low-power embedded controllers. With a base processor starting under 20,000 gates, Tensilica's Xtensa architecture is perfect for small, deeply embedded control tasks.
Main Application Processor
And, of course, every phone needs to have a central applications processor to run the operating system, user interface, and file system, coordinating all the other intelligent subsystems. In platforms with existing legacy code, a legacy control plane CPU is the right choice - and more often than not mobile handsets will require a legacy control plane CPU architecture.
