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SigC54xx Multiprocessor DSP Modules


   SigC5421-100-CONAN-16 Module
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   SigC5416-160-SODIMM-3 Module
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   SigC549-100-SIMM-6 Module
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Overview

The SigC54xx SODIMM, SIMM and CONAN modules provide multi-processor DSP solutions for telecom and internet routing infrastructure applications. These modules are low-cost, high-performance, and provide several advantages for OEM products:

    1)  Base-board design is more straightforward and lower risk. Instead of 14 or more layers with DSPs laid out on both sides, consuming valuable board real-estate, your board product becomes less complex and more reliable to manufacture. For example, a 6U form-factor cPCI board can contain from 1 to 8 (eight) SIMM modules, packing up to 48 DSPs into half the 6U area. This high amount of DSP-density allows flexible configuration for product differentiation, and processor power to be added as needed for system upgrades

    2)  New modules can be planned in the "pipeline" easily, as faster and more capable DSP devices become available. This is also important for denser, faster SRAM devices, which are constantly under development as driven by the telecom and internet routing industries

    3)  For custom applications, it is straightforward to specify a module with fewer processors and more SRAM, or vice versa

    4)  Development system option, including high-speed PC plug-in interface card which interfaces to the C54xx "HPI" port, and provides broadcast (write-many) and read-one control and access to multiple DSPs

    5)  The SigC54xx modules can be used with SigSD4 and SigSD8 Audio Modules, to provide a dedicated multichannel sigma-delta analog I/O solution

    8)  SIMM and SODIMM modules use "BGA" (ball grid array) format packaging for both DSP and SRAM devices. The BGA format offers higher IP security. It is very small and makes it more difficult to "probe" what the processor is doing; the multiple rows of BGA "balls" are not visible or accessible because they are under the chips and there is no space between the chips and the module PCB. If the DSP devices contain program data in onchip ROM, and it is not stored in the host PC, then security can be further increased by not bringing out the JTAG interface from the DSP.

    9)  The SIMM and SODIMM module approach can only accept the smallest, lowest power, less costly fixed-point DSPs being driven by telecom applications, so the overall solution is more cost-effective, compared to other multiprocessor boards on the market

Module Descriptions

The SigC54xx SODIMM, SIMM, and CONAN modules can be populated with (1) to (8) 100 MHz C549, C5409, C5416, C5402 or C542x DSPs and (1) to (6) 128k x 16 SRAM devices. The SRAM devices provide 64k x 16 of offchip Data memory, and 64k x 16 of offchip Program memory. JTAG signals are chained between DSPs and brought out to the module edge connector.

SigC54xx-SODIMM modules can contain up to three (3) DSP + SRAM sets, while their SIMM counterparts can contain up to six (6) sets for C549 and C540x devices, and eight (8) sets for C542x devices. The SigC542x-CONAN module contains eight (8) C5421 devices (16 total cores) and no external SRAM (each core has 132k x 16 onchip SRAM).

The SigC54xx SODIMM, SIMM, and CONAN modules are fully supported by the following off-the-shelf software development packages:

The DirectDSP® sofware includes support for popular host programming environments, including MATLAB, C/C++ (MSVC and Borland), Visual Basic, and LabVIEW. See Software Support below for more information.

Specifications and Data Sheets

Development System

Click here for detailed development system information
Click here for detailed development system information

SigC54xx Development Systems typically include:

Click here for specifcations, images, and more information about the SigC54xx Development System, which has three (3) SigC54x-SODIMM module sites.

Software Support

SigC54xx modules, as well as other C54xx platforms such as the Texas Instruments DSK C542, DSK C5402, and Spectrum Digital EVMC54x boards, are supported by Signalogic off-the-shelf DSP software products designed for DSP-based data acquisition and C54xx DSP code development, including:

Hypersignal®-Macro and Hypersignal-Acoustic software series, which offer a number of simulation and real-time instrument functions. Simulation functions include DSP and math functions, time domain display (including waterfall, contour, magnitude, unwrapped phase), difference equation, digital FIR and IIR filter design, sampling rate conversion, frequency zoom, wavelet transform, minimum phase calculation, and many more. Instrument functions include spectrum analyzer, digital oscilloscope, stimulus & response measurement, continuous signal generation, real-time "snap-in" filtering, continuous disk record and generate, and more.

DirectDSP® is a Windows library which provides low-level and high-level calls for user-defined C/C++, Visual Basic, MATLAB®, or LabVIEW® programs. DirectDSP includes low-level board control functions such as reset/run/hold, register access, block memory transfer, DSP executable file download, etc. High-level functions include waveform file acquire/generate, continuous signal generation, and execution of any arbitrary Hypersignal DSP or math function. DirectDSP® includes strip-chart recorder, digital oscilloscope and digital tape recorder demo program and source code examples.

The C54xx Source Code Interface contains numerous C54xx algorithms and functions in source and binary form, such as optimized FFTs, filters, matrix, transcendental, trig, signal manipulation function, board initialization and analog I/O examples, etc. These functions form the basis of higher-level software functions and instruments; modification can be used to customize Hypersignal or DirectDSP operation. User-defined C routine hooks are provided for real-time algorithm development. The C54xx Source Code Interface can be used as a basic foundation for user-defined real-time DSP systems and products.