OMAP - TI Technology

  

The wireless market is huge and growing. As demand grows, so do consumer expectations. The wireless revolution is moving rapidly beyond voice to include such sophisticated applications as mobile e-commerce, real-time Internet, speech recognition, audio and full-motion video streaming. As a result, wireless Internet appliances require increasingly complex mobile communications and signal processing capabilities. And while consumers expect state-of-the-art functionality, they continue to demand longer battery life and smaller, sleeker products. To provide these seemingly paradoxical characteristics—processing power for sophisticated applications with no reduction in battery life, wireless Internet appliance OEMs require the highly efficient, power-stingy processing delivered by the Open Multimedia Applications Platform™ (OMAP™ ) architecture from Texas Instruments. OMAP hardware and software can decode data streams, such as MP3 audio and MPEG-4 video, in real time with just a fraction of the power required when using a best-in-class RISC processor.

Texas Instruments OMAP (Open Multimedia Application Platform) is a category of proprietary system on chips (SoCs) for portable and mobile multimedia applications developed by Texas Instruments. OMAP devices generally include a general-purpose ARM architecture processor core plus one or more specialized co-processors. Earlier OMAP variants commonly featured a variant of the Texas Instruments TMS320 series digital signal processor.

In addition, the OMAP application environment is fully programmable. This programmability allows wireless device OEMs, independent developers, and carriers to provide downloadable software upgrades as standards change or bugs are found. Since there is no need to develop new ASIC hardware to implement changes, OMAP OEMs can respond to changing market conditions much more quickly than many of their competitors can.

The OMAP architecture is based on a combination of TI’s state-of-the-art TMS320C55x™ DSP core and high performance ARM925T CPU. A RISC architecture, like ARM925T, is well suited for control type code (Operating System (OS), User Interface, OS applications). A DSP is best suited for signal processing applications, such as MPEG4 video, speech recognition, and audio playback. The OMAP architecture combines two processors to gain maximum benefits from each. Both processors utilize an instruction cache to reduce the average access time to instruction memory and eliminate power hungry external accesses. In addition, both cores have a memory management unit (MMU) for virtual-to-physical memory translation and task-to-task memory protection.

The OMAP family consists of three product groups classified by performance and intended application:

§  High-performance applications processors

§  Basic multimedia applications processors

§  Integrated modem and applications processors

Additionally, there are two primary distribution channels - not all parts being available in both channels. The genesis of the OMAP product line is from partnership with cell phone vendors, and the main distribution channel involves sales directly to such wireless handset vendors. Parts developed to suit evolving cell phone requirements are flexible and powerful enough to support sales through less specialized catalog channels; some OMAP 1 parts, and many OMAP 3 parts, have catalog versions with different sales and support models. Parts that are obsolete from the perspective of handset vendors may still be needed to support products developed using catalog parts and distributor-based inventory management.

Applications including MPEG4, text-to-speech, unified messaging, Internet audio, videoconferencing, video clip playback, and others—require more powerful processors that drain less battery power. They also create dramatic new opportunities for independent software developers who can provide leading-edge applications and features. The OMAP architecture’s parallel combination of DSP and RISC processing provides the flexibility to accommodate applications like these while preserving battery life. The open architecture makes it easy for third-party developers to create these and other wireless multimedia applications not yet even imagined. Technology available from TI today provides the gateway to huge new markets tomorrow.

OMAP Products:

Many mobile phones use OMAP SoCs, including the Nokia N90, N91, N92, N95, N82, E61, E62, E63, E90, N800, N810 and N900 Internet tablets, Motorola Droid, Droid X, and Droid 2. The Palm Pre, Pandora, Touch Book also use an OMAP SoC (the OMAP3430). Others to use an OMAP SoC include the Sony Ericsson Satio, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, the Samsung Omnia HD, Sony Ericsson Idou, the Nook Color and some Archos tablets (such as Archos 80 gen 9 and Archos 101 gen 9).

The OMAP multiprocessor architecture has been optimized to support heavy multimedia applications, such as video and speech in 3G terminals. Such a complex architecture, combining two heterogeneous processors (RISC and DSP), several OS combinations, and applications running on both the DSP and ARM can be made accessible seamlessly to application developers because of the DSP/BIOS Bridge feature. Moreover, this dual processor architecture is more cost efficient and power efficient than a single processor solution.