Enter high speed data acquisition market up to three times faster with highly integrated SoC from TI including Digital Front End and JESD204B

Providing system optimized alternative to FPGAs, TI's 66AK2L06 is software programmable and delivers market enabling performance at up to 50 percent cost and power reduction

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Texas Instruments

Apr 21, 2015, 08:30 ET

DALLAS, April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In markets that require high-speed data generation and acquisition, performance is key. To make it easier to get a direct connection to the analog-to-digital-converter (ADC)/digital-to-analog-converter (DAC) and analog front end (AFE), Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) is changing the game with the highly integrated KeyStone™-based 66AK2L06 System-on-Chip (SoC) solution. The 66AK2L06 SoC integrates the JESD204B interface standard, reducing the overall board footprint by up to 66 percent. This integration also allows customers in markets such as avionics, defense, medical, and test and measurement to develop products with increased performance and up to 50 percent lower power. Additionally, developers will benefit from TI's Digital Signal Processing (DSP) programmability and pre-validation of multiple high speed ADCs, DACs and AFEs. TI's system level solution is further enabled on the 66AK2L06 SoC by the Multicore Software Development Kit (MCSDK) and RF Software Development Kit (RFSDK) resulting in faster time to market.

Breakthrough in embedded SoC and system integration
Extending TI's highly integrated and scalable KeyStone multicore architecture, the 66AK2L06 SoC integration of a Digital Front End (DFE)/Digital Down Converter-Up Converter (DDUC) and a JESD204B interface delivers a reduction in system cost and power. The integration of TI's industry leading DSPs and ARM® Cortex® processors, delivers two times the performance of current competing solutions on the market today with software programmability. The four TMS320C66x DSP cores, each delivering up to 1.2 GHz of signal processing, allow customers flexibility in programming via floating point. In order to perform complex control code processing, dual ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore™ processors deliver up to 1.2 GHz of processing power and enable real-time direct access to I/Os with low latency.

"TI's Keystone based 66AK2L06 SoC with adaptive power technology provides us with the best integrated processing capability for power-constrained and harsh environment applications," said MBDA representative.

The Fast Fourier Transform Coprocessor (FFTC) module is accessible across all the DSP cores to accelerate the FFT and IFFT computations that are required in applications such as radar systems. Additionally, the network coprocessor (NETCP), a hardware accelerator that processes data packets with a main focus on processing Ethernet packets, has four gigabit Ethernet (GbE) modules to send and receive packets from an IEEE 802.3 compliant network, as well as a packet accelerator (PA) to perform packet classification operations such as header matching, and packet modification operations and a security accelerator (SA) to encrypt and decrypt data packets.

Integration drives power savings and programmability
Power: 50 percent lower and 66 percent footprint reduction

The adaptive power technology in 66AK2L06 provides up to 50 percent lower power than competing devices with cooling requirements. With integrated wideband sample rate conversion and digital filtering up to 48-channels, the 66AK2L06 eliminates the need for an additional device, thus reducing the board area by up to 66 percent.

Software programmability: Three times faster development
The SoC is highly capable, configurable and programmable, enabling customers to develop three times faster than with FPGAs or with competing solutions on the market today. With the 66AK2L06 SoC, developers have the ability to change DFE configurations on the fly after deployment through software, while storing multiple configurations in DDR or flash memory with the ability to switch dynamically. The integration of the DFE and JESD204B interface allows users to change filters to make optimizations through software programmability in days rather than weeks as required today with an FPGA.

Together, the enhanced performance, lower power and smaller board size reduce overall system costs by 50 percent.

Integration of JESD204B integration simplifies the digital data interface
JESD204B is a highly efficient, industry-standard serial communications link that simplifies the digital data interface between data converters and processors in high-speed applications, such as test and measurement, medical, defense and avionics. In addition to the 66AK2L06 SoC, TI's JESD204B portfolio includes high-speed ADCs, such as the 12-bit, 4-GSPS ADC12J4000, and 16-bit, 250-MSPS ADS42JB69; high-speed DACs, such as the 16-bit, 2.5-GSPS DAC38J84; and clocking products, including the LMK04828 clock jitter cleaner.

Delivering complete system solution with time to market advantage
Ensuring customers are equipped with the right tools, software and support needed to quickly bring a complete system solution to high speed data generation and acquisition markets, the TI 66AK2L06 SoC is software programmable enabling the manufacturers to quickly to differentiate and adapt to the needs of the ever changing market. Leveraging TI's KeyStone-based MCSDK and RFSDK, the 66AK2L06 SoC enables developers to accelerate time to market by providing an out-of-the-box solution. TI's development tools and runtime software support make migration and development for the multicore ARM platform simpler than ever. The MCSDK provides support for open source Linux™ and TI's SYS/BIOS™ operating system for ARM cores. Evaluation modules (EVMs) will be available with the MCSDK and RFSDK with preloaded example projects. The MCSDK and RFSDK are shipped together with an XEVMK2LX EVM. Additionally, TI Designs enable customers currently using an FPGA to connect data converters to signal processors to reduce cost with a direct JESD204B interconnection and the broad ecosystem offers additional resources that aid customers with hardware, software and new feature development needs.

Availability
TI's 66AK2L06 is currently sampling. Full volume availability will be available in Q32015.

For more information:

Read the JESD204B and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) whitepaper
Learn about 66AK2L06 in the data sheet and product bulletin
View the 66AK2L06 product video
Watch the innovation and target markets Ask the Experts videos
Read more about the 66AK2L06 in the latest blog post
Keep up with the latest happenings on The Process blog
Engage with engineers and TI experts on the TI E2E™ Community
Follow TI on Twitter
Become a fan of TI on Facebook

About TI's KeyStone multicore architecture
Texas Instruments KeyStone multicore architecture is the platform for true multicore innovation, offering developers a robust portfolio of high performance, low-power multicore devices. Unleashing breakthrough performance, the KeyStone architecture is the foundation upon which TI's new TMS320C66x DSP generation was developed. KeyStone differs from any other multicore architecture as it has the capacity to provide full processing capability to every core in a multicore device. KeyStone-based devices are optimized for high performance markets including wireless base stations, mission critical, test and automation, medical imaging and high performance computing. Learn more at www.ti.com/multicore.

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors. By employing the world's brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology. TI is helping more than 100,000 customers transform the future, today. Learn more at www.ti.com.

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