Cadence Upgrades DSPs To LX8

Cadence has updated its DSPs to use the latest platform while making further improvements to two audio and two vision models.

Bryon Moyer

Cadence’s audio and vision licensable DSPs received an upgrade to the LX8 platform; four models saw further improvements in targeted DSP capabilities resulting in higher performance. AI gets a particular focus as on-device processing expectations grow.

The HiFi 1s and 5s and the Vision 110 and 130 have moved to the Tensilica Xtensa LX8 architecture and received further DSP feature upgrades, getting a name change along the way. Improvements include a 3D DMA engine, a branch-target buffer (BTB), and double-precision floating-point support; autovectorization simplifies DSP programming and accelerates time to market.

Cadence organizes its DSP offerings by target application. In addition to audio and video, it offers DSPs for connectivity MCUs (ConnX) and math-heavy duties (MathX). The launch updates two out of five HiFi audio DSPs (the top and bottom models) and two out of four Vision ones (the two smallest ones). The new Vision designs are available for licensing today; the new HiFi models are scheduled for December availability.

Performance is expected to rise above that of the prior models; some, if not all, are likely to be best in class. Power numbers typically remain undisclosed and depend heavily on the many options available when instantiating a licensable DSP.

Cadence is also bringing other HiFi, ConnX, and MathX designs onto the LX8 base architecture. The focus on the four HiFi and Vision models comes from the additional DSP improvements they have beyond the LX8 refresh. The other designs have no such additional changes. The new MathX and ConnX designs are also available now.