MCU Vendors Add DSP for Consumer Wireless Apps

Bernard Cole, Editor of the EE Times' Microcontroller and Printed Circuit Board Designlines

The target of chip vendors with new DSP-enhanced MCU and SoC designs is the next generation of wireless, wearable IoTs and a range of video and audio related consumer designs.

There is a predicable rhythm to microcontroller and processor-based SoC product introductions in those segments of the electronics market focused on consumer wireless, video, and mobile PC/laptop designs. It starts in early fall shortly after original equipment manufacturers have rolled out their designs for the Christmas market, all based on technologies demonstrated by IC makers at the previous January Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This is followed by chip vendors who are already rolling out new components and designs they want to show off at the next CES, where they hope to get enough attention from OEMs to end up in products for the following year’s next Christmas market.

It’s now fall, and based on what chip vendors are talking to me about, my guess is that next year's big consumer designs will center around applications requiring more powerful digital signal processing capabilities. The first to roll out such ICs and processors include companies such as Ensilica, Flex Logix, Microchip and Synopsys.

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