New TI Floating-Point F28335 eZdsp™ Starter Kit Speeds Development for Greener Industrial Applications

TI digital signal controllers and analog solutions provide innovation
for higher energy efficient industrial applications

BANGALORE (October 4, 2007) - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN) has made it easy for engineers to evaluate and develop software on its recently introduced floating-point TMS320F2833x digital signal controllers (DSCs) by introducing the F28335 eZdsp™ starter kit. Now sampling, the F28335 controller is the industry’s first floating-point DSC, supplying developers of industrial systems with the inherent floating-point advantages of performance and simplified software development over fixed-point devices.  In addition to these digital processing solutions, TI offers engineers a broad portfolio of complementary analog solutions for development of greener variable speed motor control, digital power supplies and intelligent sensing applications.  For more information, see www.ti.com/f28335ezdsp.

Stand-Alone Module Provides Wide Range of Features to Simplify Evaluation and Development

The F28335 eZdsp starter kit, produced by Spectrum Digital, Inc., a member of the TI DSP Third Party Network, is a stand-alone tool that provides developers a platform to easily develop software for the F2833x controllers. Only $495, this low-cost development platform provides all the hardware and software necessary for evaluation and software development, ultimately cutting design cycle time and associated costs.
The F28335 eZdsp comes complete with an F28335 target board, TI’s Code Composer Studio™ Integrated Development Environment (version 3.3), universal AC power adapter and USB cable. The target board features the 150MHz/300 MFLOPS F28335 DSC with 512KB flash and 68KB RAM, 128Kx16 off-chip SRAM.

Performance and Reduced Development Time Help Enable Greener Industrial Applications

The simplified software development and performance boost common to floating-point processors offer better power efficiency for greener industrial applications. For example, the F2833x devices enable variable speed alternating current (AC) drives, which use one-eighth the energy compared to constant speed counterparts.  The floating-point devices also enable clean energy through solar power inverters that more efficiently convert energy from photovoltaic (PV) panels.
The new F2833x floating-point controllers can increase performance by an average of 50 percent over TI’s previous leading digital signal controllers while operating at the same 150 MHz clock rate.  Some algorithms, such as a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) used for complex calculations, will see a 200 percent improvement over an equivalent 32-bit fixed-point implementation.
Embedded software engineers typically prefer to design and prototype control systems in floating-point arithmetic, but final designs are usually implemented in fixed-point arithmetic. By removing the need to convert from floating point to fixed point, F2833x devices can save weeks or months of development time and eliminate the required modifications to scaling, saturation and adjustment of numerical resolution.

Complementary Analog Products for System Solutions

For industrial applications, TI also provides customers with a broad range of complementary analog solutions including high-performance data converters (ADCs and DACs), amplifiers, interface, low-power RF and power management products. For more information, go to www.ti.com/analog.

Silicon and Tools Availability

Developers can now order samples of the TMS320F28835 from TI or any TI authorized distributor. Samples of the F28335 are available in the 176-pin TQFP package and ready for delivery. Complete documentation supporting the F2833x controllers is available for download from www.ti.com/f2833x.
Developers can also place orders for the F28335 eZdsp kit today. The eZdsp will be available through TI distributors or on the web at www.ti.com/f28335estore. Shipments of the F28335 eZdsp kit will begin on October 15.

TI Enables Innovation with Broad Range of Controllers

From ultra-low-power MSP430 and 32-bit general purpose TMS470 ARM7® family-based MCUs to high performance TMS320C2000™ digital signal controllers, TI offers designers the broadest range of embedded control solutions. Designers can also accelerate their design to market by tapping into TI’s complete software and hardware tools, extensive third party offerings and technical support. For more information on the broad range of TI’s controllers, see www.ti.com/mcu. 

About TI

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers’ real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company includes the Education Technology business. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at www.ti.com.

TRADEMARKS
Code Composer Studio and TMS320C2000 are trademarks of Texas Instruments. ARM7 is a trademark of ARM Ltd. eZdsp is a trademark of Spectrum Digital.  All other registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.