picoChip's PC102 picoArray processor is the most powerful signal processing device in the world, optimized for the one of the world’s most demanding signal processing applications; next generation wireless infrastructure. The picoArray architecture delivers:
- Best MIPS / $ of any DSP
- Best MIPS / W of any DSP
- Scalability to extremely large systems connecting dozens of picoArray devices
- The PC102 is in volume production, with dozens of carriers around the world using base-stations that depend on the performance and upgradeability of this processor. More...
- The PC200 series is picoChip's next generation multi-core DSPs, delivering wold-beating price/performance, in an easy to use way. More...
picoArray has huge processing resources for compute intensive datapath operations such as filtering, FFT, path metric calculation and correlation. But it also has enormous amounts of general-purpose MIPs to handle the ever more complex control operations of modern wireless systems which must adapt rapidly to channel conditions and service demands. The unique architecture and programming style of picoArray means that all this power can be used in real-world designs not just corner-case benchmarks – utilization of MIPs and communications bandwith of over 90% is typical.
A technical overview of the picoArray architecture, presented at Fall Processor Forum ‘04.
Mass-Production for Signal Processing
Traditional DSPs divide tasks in time: one processor core will perform one task, then sequentially switch to another, then to a third, and so on. An analogy might be a skilled artisan assembling a machine: they will switch from one task to the next. This requires that they can do all of the different tasks – which requires they are expert at all the different tasks, which makes them more expensive. It also means they spend time in changing over.
In contrast, the picoArray divides tasks across multiple, independent, processors in the array. This is like mass production: a large number of assembly line workers, each performing only one task. Because they are dedicated, they do not need to be multi-skilled and are cheaper. Because they dedicated to a single task, they are much more efficient. Because there is no switching, there is no time wasted in changes.
As a result, the picoArray can deliver vastly greater performance, much more efficiently, than traditional DSPs.
"The trade of the pin-maker … is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on, is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper…
But though they were very poor, and indifferently accommodated with the necessary machinery each person, might be considered as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all wrought separately and independently they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day; that is, certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth part of what they are capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations."
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
"Last year I said 'If everything they say is true, they have a formidable product.' With the commercial successes that picoChip is demonstrating, it is clear that it was true, and the PC102 genuinely is a formidable product. Some major players in the DSP space ought to be very concerned that picoChip is earning design wins and market share."
Will Strauss, Forward Concepts
Environmentally friendly
picoChip Designs Ltd is proactively driving the implementation of environmentally friendly materials for its products and declares that its semiconductor products are in compliance with the EU Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS Directive)
picoChip's products incorporate environmentally preferred materials and design features, eg, low toxicity, greater recyclability and low energy consumption.
picoChip's environmental product activities include RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and Lead (Pb) free initiatives.
Documentation
Technology overview
picoArray overview
Library overiew
Tools overiew
RoHS compliance declaration