Texas Instruments' DSPs Provide Lower Cost per Channel for Converged Telecom Solutions when Integrated into Surf’s Chips and AMC/PCIe Boards

SURF Communication Solutions (“Surf”), a leading provider of high-capacity multimedia processing boards for the telecommunication infrastructure field, today announced it is leveraging Texas Instruments’ latest, low cost TMS320C6421 and TMS320C6424 digital signal processors (DSPs) to promote the development of open architecture, multimedia processing solutions for SMBs. Surf has integrated TI’s new DSPs into its advanced mezzanine card (AMC), its recently announced PCI Express card, EVM development kit and chip-level multimedia processing products to support the development of enterprise media gateways and iPBX systems that deliver audio, video, fax and modem over mobile, wireline and wireless networks.

Surf will also participate in the keynote address at the TI Developer Conference Worldwide alongside Mike Hames, senior vice president of application-specific products for TI, to showcase an exciting 3G video teleconference demo utilizing the C642x DSP. In addition, see more demonstrations of Surf’s solutions and meet executives of the company at booth #608 in the Exhibition Hall during the conference to be held from March 7-9 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas.

The TMS320C642x DSPs provide high performance at an affordable price. Based on the TMS320C64x+™ DSP core, the performance of the C6424 DSP and C6421 DSP peaks at 4800 MMACs at 600 MHz. The C6421 DSP at 400 MHz is the lowest cost C64x DSP and is pin for pin compatible with other C642x DSPs allowing scalability in performance, feature set and price. The on-chip Ethernet MAC and large on-chip memory reduces bill of material cost by reducing the need for external memory. The DSPs deliver a 1.6X to 2X boost in raw DSP processing power (e.g. peak 16-bit MMACs), and with a 50 percent price reduction, enable more than a 2.5X price/performance improvement over previous generation DSPs.

“TI’s new C642x DSPs with higher performance and I/O bandwidth fit perfectly to the triple-play (voice/video/data) convergence model," stated Ilan Weizman, product marketing manager at Surf Communication Solutions. "The C6424 DSP enables Surf to reduce the price per channel by 50 percent and support densities of up to 60 voice over IP ports or 16 video over IP ports. This makes the C6424 DSP an ideal solution for scalable enterprise gateway applications because it allows simultaneous processing of all these transmission types on the same DSP at the lowest cost per channel.”

Both the SurfRider/AMC™ mezzanine card and the SurfExpress/PCIe board feature a modular plug-in that carries up to four pairs of DSPs, such as the C6424. The resulting total of eight DSPs per board leads to unprecedented price performance, ideal for converged distribution of audio and video for enterprise and iPBX applications.

“The new C6424 and C6421 DSPs will be critical enablers in the emerging market of networked DSP applications,” said Gerard Andrews, C642x DSP marketing manager for Texas Instruments. “With ability to process voice, video and data with ease and with native networking capabilities, these new DSPs will be a natural choice for OEMs building new innovative DSP-based devices that connect to the IP network.”