CEVA Introduces CEVA-TeakLite-4 -- The Most Powerful, Low Power 32-bit DSP Architecture Framework for Advanced Audio and Voice Applications

Fourth generation TeakLite® DSP architecture offered in a series of four DSP cores, differing in performance, die size and system interfaces; Incorporates smart power management technology and support for customer-owned extensions

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 16, 2012 -- Linley Tech Mobile Conference – CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA) the leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) platform solutions and DSP cores, today introduced the CEVA-TeakLite-4, the industry's most powerful, low power and scalable 32-bit DSP architecture framework for advanced audio and voice applications. The CEVA-TeakLite-4 was specifically designed to address the increasingly complex requirements of voice pre-processing and audio post-processing algorithms as well as multi-channel audio codecs, for smartphones, mobile computing and digital home devices.

Built on the proven foundation of the widely-used CEVA-TeakLite family, the CEVA-TeakLite-4 introduces innovative smart power management technology and supports customer-owned extensions, making it a highly flexible architecture and ideal for even the most area and power sensitive designs. Illustrating this, the CEVA-TeakLite-4 consumes up to 25% less die area and requires up to 30% less power than the previous generation CEVA-TeakLite-III DSP for decoding MP3 with Dolby Mobile 3+ post-processing.

Audio and Voice Complexity Grows

The 32-bit CEVA-TeakLite-4 DSP architecture directly addresses the significant challenges faced by the semiconductor industry in enabling high-quality audio and voice performance in all types of devices. To deliver better voice intelligibility in noisy environments for example, advanced pre-processing technologies reduce the background noise and improve voice clarity, requiring support for computational-intensive algorithms. Likewise, the transition to wideband voice codecs for voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications requires significantly more DSP horsepower than traditional narrowband voice codecs used today. And in mobile and home entertainment devices, audio post-processing creates a vastly-improved consumer experience, delivering virtual surround sound, speaker correction, bass expansion effects, and more. The processing required to deliver this level of performance is significantly more complex than what can be efficiently achieved with 16-bit and 24-bit DSPs utilized today, bringing 32-bit audio processing to the forefront.

Eran Briman, vice president of marketing at CEVA stated: "In architecting the CEVA-TeakLite-4, we built upon the vast knowledge and experience gained in the last five years from our first generation 32-bit audio processors to significantly improve the performance and power efficiency of our new architecture. As a result, the CEVA-TeakLite-4 architecture can address the specific requirements of any advanced audio and voice enabled SoC through a choice of scalable and flexible DSPs, which share a common instruction set architecture, software ecosystem and tool set. Furthermore, the integration of our second generation smart power management technology, PSU 2.0, enables the CEVA-TeakLite-4 architecture to deliver the lowest power consumption package possible, for each specific application."

The CEVA-TeakLite-4 architecture is initially available as a series of four compatible DSP cores, offering designers a range of application-specific cost/performance alternatives to meet their application requirements. The CEVA-TL410 and CEVA-TL411 DSPs offer single and dual 32x32 bit multipliers, respectively, targeting voice and audio CODECS and hubs, while the CEVA-TL420 and CEVA-TL421 DSPs offer additional fully cached memory subsystems and AXI system interfaces, targeting Application Processors and home audio SoCs. Courtesy of a variable 10 stage pipeline, the CEVA-TeakLite-4 architecture scales from an area-optimized implementation of less than 100K gates and ultra-low power consumption, up to a 1.5GHz implementation at 28nm for high-end SoCs. All CEVA-TeakLite-4 DSPs leverage CEVA's second generation Power Scaling Unit (PSU 2.0) which dynamically supports clock and voltage scaling with finer granularity within the processor, memories, buses and system resources.

Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group stated: "To stay competitive, OEMs must constantly improve the user experience for voice and audio in handset, consumer and automotive applications. From tomorrow's smartphones to Smart TVs and in-car entertainment, every multimedia-enabled device is expected to deliver noise-free voice in any environment along with high-quality audio features. The CEVA-TeakLite-4 addresses all of these diverse applications using a single architecture that is power efficient and yet capable of leading-edge audio and voice processing. For example, the architecture supports between one to four 32-bit and 16-bit MACs with up to 128-bit data memory bandwidth, more than any competing audio solution today, offering customers a wide choice of alternatives for their specific needs."

Following on from industry-proven CEVA-TeakLite-III DSP, The CEVA-TeakLite-4 is the second generation 32-bit DSP architecture from CEVA, and the fourth generation DSP overall that shares the foundations of the CEVA-TeakLite DSP architecture. The CEVA-TeakLite is the most successful licensable DSP family in the history of the semiconductor industry, with more than 2 billion chips shipped, over 100 licensees, 25 active ecosystem partners and close to 100 audio and voice codecs available. The CEVA-TeakLite-4 is fully compatible with every previous generation of the CEVA-TeakLite, ensuring that the full portfolio of voice and audio codecs optimized for the CEVA-TeakLite architecture runs on the CEVA-TeakLite-4 with improved efficiency. By taking advantage of a unified development infrastructure composed of code-compatible cores, a set of optimized software libraries and a single tool chain, customers can significantly reduce software development costs while leveraging their software investment in future products.

Streamlined Software Development

The CEVA-TeakLite-4 DSPs are supported by CEVA-Toolbox™, a complete software development environment, enabling the entire architecture to be programmed in C-level. An integrated simulator provides accurate and efficient verification of the entire system including the memory sub-systems. In addition, CEVA-Toolbox includes libraries, a graphical debugger, and a complete optimization tool chain named CEVA Application Optimizer. The Application Optimizer enables automatic and manual optimization applied in the C source code.

For more information, visit www.ceva-dsp.com/CEVA-TeakLite-4.html.

Availability

The first members of the CEVA-TeakLite-4 DSP family will be generally available for licensing in Q2 and Q3 of this year. For more information, contact sales@ceva-dsp.com.

About CEVA, Inc.

CEVA is the world's leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) DSP cores and platform solutions for the mobile handset, portable and consumer electronics markets. CEVA's IP portfolio includes comprehensive technologies for cellular baseband (2G / 3G / 4G), multimedia (HD video, Image Signal Processing (ISP) and HD audio), voice over packet (VoP), Bluetooth, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA). In 2011, CEVA's IP was shipped in over 1 billion devices and powers handsets from every top handset OEM, including Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony, Huawei and ZTE. Today, more than 40% of handsets shipped worldwide are powered by a CEVA DSP core. For more information, visit www.ceva-dsp.com.