11/16/2004 -- Norwood, MA - Continuing the rich audio tradition of its SHARC® Processor family, Analog Devices, Inc. (NYSE: ADI), a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications, today announced two new audio processors that deliver the audio industry’s highest performance and integration. With performance to 400MHz, the SHARC Processors ADSP-21367 and ADSP-21368 easily implement an increasing array of features required for consumer and premium audio products. These high-end third-generation SHARC Processors are designed to simplify product development, speed time to market and reduce product costs for a variety of audio applications including audio/video receivers (AVRs), professional mixing consoles and digital synthesizers. With the new SHARC Processors, manufacturers can create competitively differentiated products for their high-end customers more quickly, easily and cost-effectively than ever before.
“Manufacturers of premium audio systems are continually challenged to develop higher-performance, feature-rich products as rapidly as possible,” said Brian McAloon, group vice president and general manager, Digital Signal Processing Systems division, Analog Devices, Inc. “The SHARC Processor architecture, with its 32- and 40-bit floating-point capability, already offers the highest-quality audio possible. These two new SHARC Processors extend ADI’s industry-leading audio capabilities to a new pinnacle of performance, memory and peripheral integration, and ease of use, so that manufacturers of mid- and high-end AVRs and professional audio products can rapidly introduce differentiated products that satisfy the cravings of their high-end customers.”
Leading Consumer Electronics Vendors are SHARC Customers
Already, SHARC Processors are included in products marketed by Bose, Denon, Kenwood, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, Yamaha and many other leading consumer electronics makers; by pro audio product manufacturers such as Crown, Harrison, Mackie, Studer and Tascam; and in automobiles from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Lexus and Toyota. The high-end third-generation SHARC Processors offer significant value to premium audio systems developers.
“SRS Labs’ portfolio of technologies covers everything from single speaker stereo enhancement to advanced 6.1 surround sound decoding. We are very impressed with the performance of ADI’s SHARC Processors because they seamlessly support our audio technologies to deliver the best available audio experience for consumers in a wide variety of product applications,” said Alan Kraemer, executive vice president of SRS Labs’ Technology & Business Development Group.
“DTS is dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience, and as such we are excited about the third-generation SHARC Processors and the performance they provide. These latest SHARC Processors will provide our customers greater selection in implementing the various DTS technologies,” said Brian Towne, vice president, Consumer & Pro Audio Division at DTS.
New SHARC Processors Speed Development, Lower System Costs of High-End Audio Products
Designed for audio applications requiring the highest possible performance, the ADSP-21367 and ADSP-21368 integrate a 400MHz core with large (2Mb RAM, 6Mb ROM) on-chip memory arrays and sophisticated audio-centric peripherals. These capabilities enable the new SHARC Processors to support today’s consumer and premium audio products’ requirement for features such as multi-channel decoders including lossless formats, multi-zone support, 192KHz processing and sophisticated auto-setup routines.
According to BDTI, “When they arrive, these new parts will make the SHARC family significantly faster than its main competitor, the Texas Instruments TMS320C67x. The ‘21367 and ‘21368 are expected to achieve a BDTIsimMark2000™ score of 2050 at 400 MHz, compared to a BDTImark2000™ score of 1470 for the 300 MHz ‘C6713.”*
The processors’ 400MHz performance leads the industry and is a four-fold increase over the second-generation SHARC Processors ADSP-2116x. With this performance, the new processors easily implement all currently available industry-standard audio decoder and post-processing algorithms, with sufficient processing headroom remaining for customer-specific post-processing and future features.
The ADSP-21367 and ADSP-21368 also are the most highly integrated members of the third-generation SHARC family. Their 6Mb of on-chip ROM is factory-programmed with industry-standard audio decoder and post-processor algorithms (ADSP-21367) or with customer-specified algorithms (ADSP-21368), which will enable manufacturers to implement many audio systems using a single chip.
In addition, the new SHARC Processors include eight full-duplex, high-bandwidth serial ports; an S/PDIF transmitter/receiver; two signal routing units for peripheral-to-pin configuration; two UARTS; four precision clock generators; up to 34 GPIO pins; 10 hardware interrupts; two serial peripheral interface (SPI) ports; three timers; a two wire interface (TWI); an input data port for parallel data or additional I2S serial channels; and an 8-channel hardware asynchronous sample-rate converter, which significantly reduce the number of required external components in a product design and, ultimately, the end-system costs. The ADSP-21368 also includes support for shared memory systems, a feature particularly useful in multi-processor professional audio systems such as recording studio mixing consoles.
The processors’ high-bandwidth, highly efficient, 32-bit external memory interface simplifies software and hardware development by speeding algorithm development, ensuring that ADI is the first to market with the newest audio algorithms. The glueless interface to SRAM, FLASH and SDRAM allows embedded audio designers to take advantage of the most cost-effective memory technology, again resulting in lower overall system costs. As a result, the new SHARC Processors help makers of audio products to reach the market with new, validated and tested, high-performance products with unprecedented speed.
The ADSP-21367 is aimed at the mid- to high-end AVR market. The ADSP-21368 adds shared memory capabilities that make it ideal for professional audio applications. With both processors, manufacturers can frequently replace multiple DSPs in a design with a single SHARC Processor.
ADI’s development tools for SHARC Processors include the CROSSCORE family, which encompasses the VisualDSP++® integrated software development environment, EZ-KIT Lite™ evaluation systems and emulators for rapid on-chip debugging.
Pricing and Availability
The SHARC Processors ADSP-21367 and ADSP-21368 will be sampling in Q1 2005, and will be available in quantity in the summer of 2005 for $29.95 and $34.95, respectively, for 10,000 pieces.
About Analog Devices
Analog Devices, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of precision high-performance integrated circuits used in analog and digital signal processing applications. ADI is headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, and employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide. It has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Ireland, and the Philippines. Analog Devices' common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ADI is included in the S&P 500 Index.
1 *Excerpted from the November 2004 edition of Inside[DSP], © 2004 BDTI. Contact info@BDTI.com for information.
2 The BDTImark2000™ and BDTIsimMark2000™ provide a summary measure of DSP speed. For more information and scores see www.BDTI.com. Scores © 2004 BDTI.
3 SHARC and VisualDSP++ are registered trademarks and EZ-KIT Lite is a trademark of Analog Devices, Inc. All other trademarks included herein are the property of their respective owners.
Editor's Contact Information:
Cynthia Hoye
(408) 239-0717
dsps_pr@analog.com
