Freescale Introduced Quad-Core MSC8144 StarCore DSP

Freescale announced its third-generation multicore DSP based on next-generation SC3400 StarCore technology. The new MSC8144 DSP is engineered to deliver leading-edge performance, reduce system costs and significantly increase channel densities for next-generation wireline and wireless infrastructure applications providing voice, video and data services.

The new MSC8144 takes single-chip DSP integration to a new level of sophistication. Combining four StarCore DSP cores at up to 1GHz each, the MSC8144 delivers performance equivalent to a 4GHz single-core DSP. It integrates the industry’s largest embedded memory at 10.5 MBytes in a single package.

The deeper pipeline SC3400 DSP core on which the MSC8144 DSP is based enables higher clock rates and adds new Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions, precise exception and branch prediction. The SC3400 core also supports improved specialized instructions for Viterbi and video algorithms that virtually double the performance of previous-generation StarCore DSPs. Each core is surrounded by a 16KByte instruction cache, 32KByte data cache and an MMU (memory management unit) for memory and task protection.

Since the advanced SC3400 instructions are a superset of the current SC140 instructions, MSC8144 software is fully binary and assembly-code compatible with Freescale’s existing portfolio of multi- and single-core DSPs based on StarCore technology. This compatibility enables customers to leverage their software investment.

The OSEck RTOS from Enea also supports the MSC8144, providing a fully pre-emptive, full-featured, compact real-time kernel optimized to provide the high performance and small memory footprint tuned to meet the specific requirements of DSP systems.

Based on Freescale’s advanced 90nm silicon-on-insulator technology, the MSC8144 DSP is planned to be available in 1GHz and 800MHz versions in a 783-pin, 29 x 29 mm FC-PBGA package. General sampling is planned for the third quarter of 2006. Suggested resale pricing in 10,000-unit quantities starts at $180 (USD).