Processors

Strategic vision

Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Since three decades the processor technology has been following this exponential growth. In the same way usage of the software has increased and, today, processors are used in nearly all products. The FPGA's follow the same rule.

CPUs are sequential processing devices. They break an algorithm up into a sequence of operations and execute them one at a time.

FPGAs may be used as parallel processing devices. An entire algorithm may be executed in a single tick of the clock or far fewer clock ticks than a sequential processor.

A wide range of designs may be addressed using both processor and FPGA. The main challenge is then to find the right technology based on the product requirement and the market objectives.

This trade-off is at the heart of the design process. In many cases the solution involves a cooperation between both technologies.

One other consequence of the increasing complexity of IC is the emergence of Systems on a Chip (SoC). Today the processors include multiple peripherals to address generic or specific markets. On the other hand FPGA are now packaged with powerful embedded processors.

DELTATEC has a long experience in development of custom embedded solutions for various markets, including industrial, multimedia, aerospace or customer-oriented. DELTATEC also develops highly computational software solutions, such as real-time video broadcast applications.

Tools & Methods

To address various markets, DELTATEC proposes solutions based on a large range of computational platforms, from small footprint microcontrollers to computing intensive parallel architectures.

DELTATEC experience includes:

  • Digital Signal Processors (DSP)
  • FPGA embedded processing cores
  • System on Chip (SoC)
  • Mobile processors
  • Symmetric Multi-Processor Architectures (SMP)
  • GPU based computing.

For each technology DELTATEC has developed specific design frameworks. A central lab equipped with the latest measuring instruments is used for test. DELTATEC has also established a network of external subcontractors for specific measurement and standard assessment.

DELTATEC provides solutions based on a wide range of operating systems:

  • Desktop computer, servers and workstations: Windows, Linux and OS X
  • Embedded platforms: Windows Embedded, Embedded Linux on ARM processors, and various real-time operating systems, like FreeRTOS, µc-OS or RTEMS
  • Mobile platforms: iOS or Android

This makes DELTATEC able to provide computational solutions that are perfectly fitted to customer needs in term of cost, power consumption, size and reliability.

Projects

  • E-PLA

    E-PLA

    Electronic actuator

  • ESAIL

    ESAIL

    AIS messages detection