on another topic...

[Mike O'Dell]

i had a chat with the CEO of a firm in Montreal who makes
a multi-core DSP which uses asynchronous logic in the
DSP cores. the net result is incredible processing
power with *tiny* power consumption. their new 24-core
chip can do 64-72 users of G3/HSDP baseband processing
(for cell sites) running at just a smidge over 2 watts.
the cores themselves run at about 1.2-1.5GHz "logical
clock speed" (since the logic in the cores is asynchronous,
there is no "clock" in the usual sense for the cores.
there is clock for the TDM interfacing at the edge
of the part).

there's also an ARM A11 in there, too, just for giggles.

the best part is the interfacing - it has a GigE port
integral to the chip, a PCIe interface, and high-speed
serial ports designed for zero-glue interfacing to the
high-speed ADCs used for cellular baseband processing.
(Does the name Analog Devices ring a bell?)

i'm thinking this could do something like a Quicksilver
type SDR *without* needing the fpga and put the entire
receiver in the chip, demod software and all, with just
the ADC on the front end.

i'm going to explore swinging some dev kits if people
would like to goof on this.

	-mo