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Motorola announced the world's first baseband processor that can execute all major existing wireless standards, including CDMA, GSM, iDEN, and TDMA, as well as satellite-based devices.
"The DSP56690 baseband processor, part of Motorola's DigitalDNA portfolio for wireless systems, integrates a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) core and an M-CORE microcontroller and is capable of delivering the processing performance to complete a modern wireless exchange," the company said.
The processor provides a large on-chip ROM memory space and a strong peripheral set that allow it to be configured to meet the needs of mid- to high-tier wireless applications, specifically those that take advantage of high data-throughput standards such as general packet radio service (GPRS) and WAP-enabled microbrowsers.
But the device architecture can be scaled down to low-tier applications when needed. According to Motorola, the architecture is expected "to take advantage of applications built around software standards such as Sun's Java."
The bulk of the DSP56690's processing duties are divided between a DSP56600 core running at more than 100 MHz and an M-CORE M210 32 bit microcontroller operating at more than 50 MHz. These two core processors communicate via a unique interface comprising a shared RAM memory block.
Limited samples of the development device and a development board are expected to be available late this year. High-volume production of the ROM-based DSP56690 is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2000.
More information on Motorola's DSP56690 is available at:
http://www.motorola.com/wireless-semi
Sun Microsystems is offering users the chance to preview its Solaris 8 operating system before its official release. Solaris 8 -- a second-generation 64 bit operating environment -- is available for Intel and SPARC processors.
The OS supports:
The Early Access CD set includes the software and a free license, complete documentation, Appcert (an application certification tool), an unlimited license for StarOffice, plus other tools -- all for 9.99.
Appcert and other Solaris bin-compatibility tools for Solaris are available at:
http://www.sun.com/developers/tools/abi
You can order Solaris 8 Early Access at:
http://www.sun.com/solaris/ea/
IBM Corporation has announced HotMedia 2.5, a tool designed to help companies create interactive online business media such as slide shows, videos, panoramas, and tours. According to IBM, HotMedia is the first rich-media Web technology to fully harness the power of Java.
IBM HotMedia 2.5 allows developers to synchronize HotMedia streaming audio with images for more interactive Web presentations and slide shows. A batch-processing feature automates the creation of large amounts of rich-media content.