Contributed by Lidio Gentili, IØGEJ

The TI TMX320C DSP IC.

Icom has released in advance the news about the new IC-7800 HF/6m transceiver. In a preview at the 2003 Dayton Hamvention (May 16 – 18 2003), the company unveiled the HF/50MHz Transceiver's prototype and the Pre-release Product Information. They also declared: "Icom brings you the most advanced amateur radio ever in the IC-7800!"

The preliminary IC-7800 Product Brochure emphasised the utilisation of the new Texas Instruments DSP chip(TMX320C6713GDP), whichwas in prototype development at the time of printing. However, on August 19, 2003, TI presented the TMS320C6713 Floating-Point Digital Signal Processor datasheet on their official site. Thus, there are now no more doubts about the chip's availability, and Icom is ready for IC-7800production.

Examining new DSP specifications, with the final product code TMS320C6713, we were struck by its great processing power. Whilst waiting for theARRL Lab test of the new IC 7800 (11000 USD!!), we can compare various DSP chipsutilised by Icom : 

• IC-756Pro, 756ProII and 756ProIII:
  Analog Devices –ADSP21061LKS-160 Sharc
  32 bit, Floating-Point
  50 MIPS (million instructions per second)
  120 MFLOPS Peak (million floating-point operations per second)
  Cycle Time 20 ns
  40 MHz Clock Rates

• IC-746Pro (IC 7400):
  Texas Instruments – TMS320VC33-120
  32 bit, Floating-Point
  60 MIPS (million instructions per second)
  120 MFLOPS Peak (million floating-point operations per second)
  Cycle Time 17 ns
  60 MHz Clock Rates

• IC-7800:
  Texas Instruments – TMS320C6713-GDP
  32 bit, Floating-Point
  1350 MIPS (million instructions per second)
  1800 MFLOPS Peak (million floating-point operations per second)
  Cycle Time 5 ns
  225/200 MHz Clock Rates

The TMS320C6713 (C6713) device is based on the high-performance, advanced VelociTI™ very-long-instruction-word (VLIW) architecture developed by Texas Instruments (TI), and with dual fixed-/floating-point multipliers up to 450 million multiply-accumulate operations per second (MMACS)."

The IC-7800 builds on the phenomenal performance of the 32-bit DSP that Icom introduced. Thanks to the 24-bit AD/DA converter, it supports many DSP features that come from Icom's experience with the IC-756Pro and IC-756Pro II.

Note that Icom still uses the ADI SHARC DSP IC (as found in the IC-756Pro/Pro II) in the IC-756Pro III. The Texas Instruments TMS320VC33 DSP was first introduced in the IC-746Pro (IC-7400), and Icom may be using it in HF marine and PMR radios.

As a matter of fact, the four independent 32-bit floating-point DSP units in theIC-7800 are based on a greatly-improved TI chip (TMS320C6713-GDP, see above.)The TMX, TMP and TMS designators are defined in the TI Quality and Reliability Conditions given below:

1. TMX Definition:Texas Instruments (TI) does not warranty either (1) electrical performanceto specification, or (2) product reliability for products classified as"TMX." By definition, the product has not completed data sheet verificationor reliability performance qualification according to TI Quality Systems Specifications. Themere fact that a "TMX" device was tested over aparticular temperature range and voltage range should not, inany way, beconstrued as a warranty of performance. 

2. TMP Definition:TI does not warranty product reliability for products classified as "TMP."By definition, the product has not completed reliability performancequalification according to TI Quality Systems Specifications; however, products aretested to a published electrical and mechanical specification. 

3. TMS Definition:Fully-qualified production device. All trademarks are the property of theirrespective owners.