Texas Instruments Takes Aim at Embedded Processing

In this What’s Hot, we thought it about time to acknowledge the significant moves Texas Instruments has been making in the processor market, and how that affects us in the engineering community. The DM365 is a recent example that we felt deserved its own spotlight but there is a lot more going on in TI’s factories that is changing the landscape for product designers.

TI is best known for its wireless handset chips, DSPs, and analog ICs, but the company is also a major supplier of embedded processors-a category that includes microcontrollers (MCUs), application processors, and other general-purpose processors. According to Gartner, TI is the world's eighth-largest MCU vendor, with MCU sales exceeding $720 million in 2008. TI is also the world's leading licensee of the ARM architecture.

TI has been making aggressive moves to beef up its embedded processor portfolio, introducing a variety of high-end processors and acquiring Luminary Micro to fill out its lower-end offerings. On both ends of the spectrum, TI is solidifying its position as a leading supplier of ARM processors.

The Luminary Micro acquisition is the most significant recent development. Luminary is a small startup - its revenues were only $5 million last year, says Gartner-but the company was the first to bring ARM Cortex-M3 processors to market. Luminary has won numerous awards for these processors, which combine a 32-bit architecture with 8/16-bit price points and product features. The products are a good fit for TI, which currently lacks low-cost, general-purpose ARM offerings. (TI does offer ARM-based automotive MCUs.)

On the high end, TI has expanded its offering with the OMAP35x, a family of application processors that combines high performance with low power and aggressive pricing. Performance comes from a 600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 core supported by an optional C64x+ with video accelerators and optional 3D graphics engine. (The video engine is compatible with TI's DaVinci video processors, allowing OMAP35x developers to take advantage of popular DaVinci software.) Pricing starts at $25 in 100-unit quantities, while power runs in the low hundreds of milliwatts. This combination of performance, cost, and power makes the OMAP35x suitable for a wide range of applications, including handheld devices, web tablets, and photo frames.

As noted with the DM365 debut, TI also continues to innovate and evolve its DaVinci line of Digital Media SoCs. The DaVinci processors, which are typically used in audio-video applications, feature either C64x+ class DSPs (with video processing subsystems) or hardened video compression engines. Most DaVinci processors also include an ARM9 core that provides compatibility with TI's other product lines. Peripheral sets are rich including video ports, USB OTG, 10/100 Ethernet, DDR, EMIF, VLYNQ, SPI, I2C, UARTs, and some with PCI. There are a broad range of devices within the DaVinci family such as:

• DM643x with a C64x+ DSP without the ARM9
• DM335 with video ports but without a compression engine
• DM648 with five configurable video ports
• DM644x with programmable C64x+ core
• DM646x with 1080p and PCI
• DM355/365 with low-power hardened compression engines

The expanding line of DaVinci devices provides for design future-proofing, cost reductions, and software re-use between applications.

Put together, the recent announcements add up to a bold attack on the embedded processor market. It is particularly notable that TI is attacking both the high and low-end ARM markets simultaneously. Most of TI's competitors offer a narrower range of solutions. For example, Marvell offers impressive high-end ARM processors-including a dual-core, 1.2 GHz processor-but it does not offer low-end parts. Similarly, companies like ST and NXP offer a wide variety of low-end parts, but have nothing that can compete with the OMAP35x. TI's ability to offer a broader range of solutions may give it a competitive advantage as the market evolves.