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dsp/mcuZONE Products for the week of April 28, 2008
LSI Corp Says…
Portfolio of StarPro Processors Expanded for High Quality Voice and Video Media Gateway Applications
Powerful multi-core architecture enables next generation of high density, low power Media Gateway and IP Multimedia platforms
LSI Corporation has announced two new additions to the StarPro Media Processor family – the SP2603 and SP2612. These new Media Gateway system-on-a-chip (SOC) solutions offer lower power consumption per voice channel and video transcoding for new mobile video and enterprise collaboration services. They enable manufacturers to build more cost-effective, high-density platforms that support advanced voice services and video processing in a wide range of network environments. The complete system solution includes a comprehensive software development environment and leading voice, fax, and video codecs supporting H.263, H.264, and MPEG-4 standards.
LSI has created the Media Gateway architecture to meet the demands of high density voice and video applications. The solution is scalable up to 12 DSP cores per chip, providing a single platform for a wide range of applications from entry level multi-service business gateways through wireless carrier-class Media Gateways. All SOCs are equipped with embedded CPUs, on-board memory for voice applications and carrier-class packet processing engines to support advanced QoS and traffic management.
Jim Anderson, vice president of marketing, Networking and Storage Products Group, LSI, said, “Wireless operators will need highly scalable solutions to handle the increasing demand for broadband, real-time video services. These devices enable end-to-end services across the network providing the highest density and lowest power consumption to meet the challenges faced by OEMs.”
EN-Genius Says…
Although I’d feared LSI’s acquisition of Agere would mean that much of Agere’s top-rate communications and DSP products would get sold off or abandoned, I’m pleased to say that just the opposite seems to have happened. The introduction of a new member in their DSP family and a new open-architecture gateway development platform for it to play in are both good omens for the continued health of several of Agere's key product lines. It also may mark the introduction of a platform architecture that will allow equipment manufacturers to meet challenges of any-to-any voice and video with extremely flexible and cost-effective products that can adapt to the market’s changing needs.
 Like other StarCore family members, LSI’s new multi-core devices integrate a cluster of highly-efficient Agere 3400 DSPs and an ARM11 that handles light packet inspection, control plane, and housekeeping functions. Both the 3-DSP SP2603 and its larger SP2612 12-core counterpart (actually an MCM containing four SP2603s) also have a pair of packet processing engines (one for input, one for output) that handle load balancing, QoS, and outbound tagging plus a pair of TDM ports for low-cost voice gateway applications. The SP2603 also boasts 3Mbyte of on-chip memory that provides enough storage to support any audio processing application the DSPs can throw at it. Its also equipped with an external DDR2 memory interface that allows for inexpensive expansion to support video processing.
If you’re running medium-weight codecs like G.711 or H.264 and doing your echo cancellation elsewhere, the three-core SP2603 will support up to 256 voice channels. More complex codecs such ISAT or MS Real Time Audio drop channel count to a bit over 100 channels. I was not sure which channel count they were citing when they cited a cost of under $0.25/channel but it’s a pretty good deal in either case. The processor 1.5 W power consumption is also a bargain since power is critical in the compact CPE and power-limited plug-in modules that LSI says will be a major part of their target market. LSI claims that both processors offer 50% more channels per square inch of PCB space and a power-per-channel spec that beats the pants off of anything Brand T can offer for mobile voice gateway and wireless baseband applications.
 Although the processor does sport a 33 MHz PCI bus for control and talking with a host system, the processor primary network interface is a pair of Gigabit Ethernet connections. This seems a bit peculiar until you look at the second part of the LSI release that outlines the Multi-Service Business Gateway (MSBG), an open communication system platform based on their low-cost APP300 network processor that also uses Ethernet as the primary way to move communication streams between the NP and plug-in auxiliary processing modules.
In such a platform, the LSI APP300 NP will provide basic L2/L3/L4 networking/interworking, control plane and crypto functions instead of the traditional RISC/CISC engines that populate most SMB products today. Other services, such as heavy security processing, deep packet inspection, RegEx, and DSP are pushed out to specialized silicon on small plug-in cards using, you guessed it, Ethernet connections.
 Although my first instinct might have been to use PCIe or SRIO interconnects, Ethernet makes sense after you consider the relatively low data rates each module is expected to handle and the extremely tight cost constraints that a high-volume CPE box must work within. LSI also says they selected Ethernet because the protocol supports advanced traffic management functions and can take advantage of the fast path of the data plane. In addition, Ethernet is so widely supported that it allows you to use nearly any auxiliary processing chip on your plug-in cards without worrying about interface compatibility. This way, a box containing an NP300-powered multi-protocol router can be quickly and inexpensively upgraded to function as a high-powered firewall, a UTM, or media gateway using plug-in modules containing silicon from LSI or any other vendor supporting the MSBG architecture.
LSI has opened up the MSBG alliance to several leading hardware, software, and ODMs with several more getting ready to join the party. Bringing them together is a great opportunity for mash-ups and innovation, not to mention a big (and welcome) change from the closed-ecosystem approach Agere took when it introduced several turnkey communication application designs back in the 2005/2006 time frame. In fact, I commented on Agere’s need to open up its developer ecosystem back when I reviewed their wireless access solution in May 2005. Even if the move to an open platform comes a little late, it may be well-timed to address the growing need for more flexible, higher-bandwidth CPE for SMBs and satellite enterprise applications.
The SP2603, SP2612, and APP300 are all in production.
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