As real-time DSP systems grow, they become increasingly difficult to manage.  I/O data streams are getting faster, requiring larger and faster storage capacity.  High-speed data streams also mandate a corresponding increase in processing power.  Today's DSP systems share a common requirement for fast I/O ports, fast memory, fast processors, and a real-time operating system.  Designers are faced with the dual challenges of providing these features without resorting to unreasonably complex architectures.  Ideally, a real-time DSP system would have only a few powerful processors with a large, central shared memory resource and support the ability for high-level programming in C.  The evolution of computer memory architectures, along with advances in ASIC chip technology, has allowed Texas Memory Systems to provide these types of systems.

Our DSP systems have been designed to offer super DSP capacity and still keep the computer architecture simple, easy to understand, and quick to program.  The architecture of the SAM-450 emulates a supercomputer without the supercomputer 'heavy iron' look.  It is based on a single high bandwidth shared memory resource with a few high performance processors.  A clean programming methodology is achieved by writing application programs in C for execution on a scalar processor (AX2).  The application program makes subroutine calls to the S4 vector processors which perform the intense number crunching necessary in many high-resolution applications requiring complex scientific algorithms.   Our super DSP architecture combines ease of use while still maintaining a fast-efficient throughput.

The SAM real-time Executive (SAMEX) runs on each processor, controlling and synchronizing SAM system operations.  SAMEX provides system functions, multitasking and parallel processing, but eliminates the complexity and the latency of popular operating systems.  It is tuned to perform system operations quickly and with low overhead.