What is the lowest power dsp ?

I have been looking at the many low power single chip processors 
available. But most are only 16 Mhz.
I know that the higher the speed the more the current.
Are there any low power DSP chips available that compare to TI MSPxxx ?

Thanks

Donald,

The  TI MSPxxx series was the power/price leader I found when searching
for these features about three months ago.

--Randy

Donald <donald@dontdoithere.com> wrote in news:UcGdnfiE-ff314neRVn-
pQ@forethought.net:

> I have been looking at the many low power single chip processors 
> available. But most are only 16 Mhz.
> I know that the higher the speed the more the current.
> Are there any low power DSP chips available that compare to TI MSPxxx ?
> 
> Thanks

You might take a close look at the Blackfin. The switching power supply is 
adjustable to a very low voltage. The Blackfin is very fast. If you run at 
a reduced clock, it may still be fast enough for your application and 
operate at low power.  

-- 
Al Clark
Danville Signal Processing, Inc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Purveyors of Fine DSP Hardware and other Cool Stuff
Available at http://www.danvillesignal.com

> The Blackfin is very fast. If you run at
> a reduced clock, it may still be fast enough for your application and
> operate at low power.

Actually that brings up a good point, Al. If you utilize the sleep mode
of the DSP (whatever the manufacturer), so that the "real work" is
performed in short bursts and the rest of the time the processor
remains asleep, you may be able to get very decent power
consumption performance. I think price will bite you, however,
for anything like a Blackfin or C55/6x when compared with the
MSPxxx family.

--Randy

I'm not sure, but I think you can run a dsPIC at 32 kHz and the current 
consumption should only be micro amps at 3V.

Thomas

"Donald" <donald@dontdoithere.com> wrote in message 
news:UcGdnfiE-ff314neRVn-pQ@forethought.net...
>I have been looking at the many low power single chip processors available. 
>But most are only 16 Mhz.
> I know that the higher the speed the more the current.
> Are there any low power DSP chips available that compare to TI MSPxxx ?
>
> Thanks 

well the ARM processors aren't as low power (mips/mA), but depending on
your application they may be lower power, the TI MSP are 16 bit
machines so even though the ARM's are higher power they are doing 32
bit math, so you may be able to run them at much lower frequency to get
the job done

"Randy Yates" <yates@ieee.org> wrote in message 
news:1125411735.783786.255790@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>> The Blackfin is very fast. If you run at
>> a reduced clock, it may still be fast enough for your application and
>> operate at low power.
>
> Actually that brings up a good point, Al. If you utilize the sleep mode
> of the DSP (whatever the manufacturer), so that the "real work" is
> performed in short bursts and the rest of the time the processor
> remains asleep, you may be able to get very decent power
> consumption performance. I think price will bite you, however,
> for anything like a Blackfin or C55/6x when compared with the
> MSPxxx family.
>
> --Randy
>

That is a good point.  The MSP430 derives much of its low-power 
characteristics from this principle.  Its standby current is ultra-low so 
with the device waking up very infrequently the average current consumption 
approaches the sleep current.

The 55x DSPs have low sleep current as well.  Let me qualify that by saying 
it's very low for a DSP (I think that's sort of like "runs fast for a 
catcher").  From what I've seen comparing Blackfin and 55x it appears the 
Blackfin has lower operating current than the 55x but the 55x has MUCH lower 
sleep current.  So for many real-world applications you end up with lower 
average current consumption using 55x than you would with Blackfin.

My two cents...

Brad

steve wrote:
> well the ARM processors aren't as low power (mips/mA), but depending on
> your application they may be lower power, the TI MSP are 16 bit
> machines so even though the ARM's are higher power they are doing 32
> bit math, so you may be able to run them at much lower frequency to get
> the job done

How does it compare to the 'C33?

Jerry
-- 
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
�����������������������������������������������������������������������

> That is a good point.The MSP430 derives much of 
> its low-power characteristics from this principle. 
> Its standby current is ultra-low so 
> with the device waking up very infrequently 
> the average current consumption 
> approaches the sleep current.

I dont think there is a more(or less?!) ultra-low power
MCU with this rich a set of features(MAC,DMA etc.) at
this price point. 

(BTW, Uncle Tom has ensured that MSP430 has gobbled 
a significant portion of the 8-bit market by offering
the 16-bit, semi-DSP/full MCU MSP430)

There is an interesting Evangelist(Vincent Chan) at TI for 
MSP430, who calls the MSP430 "The Sun Kissed MCU".I attended
one of magic shows where he ran a motor with MSP430 just by
plunging the wires into a juicy chinese apple.Just like magic.


--Bhooshan
		
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