Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1098973
78 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2019 Johnson: And you have some new develop- ments and configurations where you're start- ing to get into some verticals. Markarian: We've always done verticals, but we're expanding now. We started with audio as a vertical, and that has been very successful; it has so dominated the audio space that we have become the de facto standard for audio DSP IP. We also have our HiFi product line doing audio. Then, we came out with our ConnX DSPs, which provide a full range of commu- nication DSPs solutions from a dual MAC to a 64 MAC implementation. A few years ago, we introduced our Vision DSPs, which provide IP solutions for imaging and vision applications, and has seen huge adoption in the market. Further, we have a vertical product line called Fusion. The Fusion family is a scalable range of general-purpose DSPs designed with flexible options to give designers the ability to optimize the DSP specifically for a customer's applica- tion needs. From having ultra-low power to a small footprint, being compute-intensive, and having high-performance processing, the Tensilica Fusion DSPs are perfect for many of the advanced applications we see today such as IoT, automotive, mobile, wearables, consumer electronics, and so much more. Recently, we expanded into the AI space with the announcement of our DNA100 technology, which has generated a tremendous amount of interest and excitement in the market. The great thing about all of the processor technolo- gies we offer (including the vertical solutions) is that these processors can be further config- ured and extended with custom instructions and interfaces. It really becomes a powerful architectural option and a differentiator for our customers. Johnson: This seems very powerful and config- urable on the hardware side of things. When it comes to putting together an instruction set, you have some tools that are very powerful as well. Markarian: Yes, and that's an excellent point. It's not difficult to add instructions in a proces- sor; all you do is add hardware. The real value we offer is the ability to match the software to the hardware you just configured. As you're creating and configuring these processors and adding your instructions, we provide a process where you have a user interface, go through, and you click on boxes to do the configura- tion and choose the architectural features that you want. You can then add your own instruc- tions and interfaces as well as define your own memory subsystem and interrupt struc- ture. You're really basically defining what your Vic Markarian