Texas Instruments OMAP 5 Platform Includes ARM Cortex Processors

The company's OMAP 5 processor offers dedicated engines for video, 3D graphics, display and security.

Semiconductor specialist Texas Instruments (TI) announced the next generation of its OMAP family, the OMAP 5 mobile applications platform, boasting two ARM Cortex-A15 MPCores - the most advanced ARM architecture to date - capable of speeds of up to 2 GHz per core in the OMAP 5 implementation.

The 28 nanometer OMAP 5 applications processors offer up to three times the processing performance and five-fold 3D graphics improvement, yet provide a nearly 60 percent average power reduction compared to a sample user experience on the OMAP 4 platform, according to a company release. In addition to the two Cortex-A15 cores, the OMAP 5 processor includes individual, dedicated engines for video, imaging and vision, digital signal processing (DSP), 3D graphics, 2D graphics, display and security.

The processor also includes two ARM Cortex-M4 processors for offloading real-time processing from the Cortex-A15 cores, which is designed to improve low-level control and responsiveness of mobile devices. The processor can support up to four cameras in parallel, as well as record and play back S3D video in 1080p quality, and perform real-time conversion of 2D content to S3D at 1080p resolution.

"The next decade will bring a revolution in mobile computing, as devices continue to converge, attempting to become one single device that meets all of our computing, entertainment, and complex day-to-day needs and interests. However, the bridge to true mobile computing enablement was missing until today," said TI's vice president of the OMAP platform business unit Remi El-Ouazzane. "The OMAP 5 platform will be at the heart of driving the mobile computing revolution by delivering the highest computing, graphics and multimedia performance possible within the low power budget required by mobile form factors,"

The processor is also architected to deliver short- and long-range gesturing applications, as well as full-body and multi-body interactive gestures, utilizing either 2D or S3D cameras. The processor, coupled with a TI DLP Pico projector and a camera, can also enable interactive projection where the user can actually "touch and drag" projected images on both a table top or wall. Additionally, the processor can interface with and leverage a wide variety of sensor technologies to enable touchless sensing, such as proximity sensing, capacitive sensing and ultrasonic sensing.

"We continue to see high performance mobile devices, such as advanced Smartphones and tablets, requiring increased processor performance while remaining within the restricted mobile power consumption boundaries," said Mike Inglis, executive vice president and general manager of the ARM processor division. "The OMAP 5 processor highlights the advantage of the ARM business model. The relationship enables product differentiation through the integration of low power multi-core ARM processor cores with the partners' own system-on-chip technologies, including power management, audio and video processing. ARM is proud to have contributed to the OMAP 5 platform, which enables OEM customers to leverage the extensive ARM software ecosystem to quickly deliver innovative new mobile solutions."

TI said the OMAP 5 platform is expected to sample in the second half of 2011, with devices on the market in the second half of 2012. The OMAP5430 processor is offered in a 14x14mm Package-on-Package (PoP) with LPDDR2 memory support, while the OMAP5432 processor is offered in a 17x17mm BGA package with DDR3/DDR3L memory support. The company noted the products are intended for high-volume mobile OEMs and ODMs and are not available through distributors. The company said it also plans to develop compatible ARM Cortex-A15 processor-based solutions for broader market applications across TI's product portfolio.