TI C553x DSP debuts at industry's lowest price point

Texas Instruments Inc. opened order entry for its latest TMS320C553x ultra-low-power DSPs at a price point it claims is the industry's lowest.

Starting at $1.95 in 1,000-unit quantities, the C553x DSPs enable developers to add sophisticated signal processing to consumer audio and voice applications, portable medical equipment, biometric security, voice-activated home automation and flow meters at the price point of a microcontroller and at the lowest active and standby power consumption rate, according to TI.

The C553x DSPs are supported by the $55 C5535 eZdsp development kit for a one-time C55x promotional price of $55 for the next 55 days (normally priced at $99). The kit includes a credit-card-sized development board by Spectrum Digital, a free, full-featured version of Code Composer Studio (CCStudio) integrated development environment (IDE) ($495 value), headphones with microphone, a micro-SD card and an on-board emulator (up to $500 value). It also comes preloaded with the USB audio class and human interface device (HID) demo.

Customers can easily migrate between the C553x DSPs and also to the software-compatible C5515, C5514, C5505 and C5504 ultra-low-power DSPs. In addition, devices within the C553x DSP generation are also pin-to-pin compatible.

Key highlights:

• Generation includes the lowest price DSP on the market, starting at $1.95
• Up to 50 MHz and 100 MHz performance options for each DSP
• Total active core power < 0.15 mW/MHz at 1.05V and standby power < 0.15 mW
• 12 mm x 12 mm BGA package with 0.8mm pitch
• I²S, I²C, UART, SPI, GPIO
• On-chip memory options ranging from 64 KB to 320 KB for a variety of storage needs
• High-speed USB 2.0 with PHY, SD/eMMC
• Up to 1024-point programmable fast Fourier transform (FFT) co-processor (C5535 only)
• LCD display controller and 10-bit, four-channel successive approximation (SAR) ADC (C5535 only)
• 1-3 low-dropout regulators (LDOs)

Pricing and availability

Free samples of the C5535 ultra-low-power DSPs are available today. Production pricing for C553x ultra-low-power DSPs starts at $1.95 in quantities of 1,000 units. Begin developing today with the C5535 eZdsp development kit for a one-time C55x promotional price of $55 for the next 55 days (normally priced at $99). TI's free software framework for USB audio class and HID applications, including the out-of-the-box demo, is available for download.