science

Texas Instruments DaVinci

Texas Instruments DaVinci is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Texas Instruments DaVinci rather than just read about it. In short: The Texas Instruments DaVinci is a family of system on a chip processors that are primarily used in embedded video and vision applications. Many processors in the family combine a DSP core based on the TMS320 C6000 VLIW DSP family and an ARM CPU core into a single system on chip.

Key takeaways

Texas Instruments DaVinci belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Texas Instruments DaVinci to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Texas Instruments DaVinci from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Texas Instruments DaVinci is a family of system on a chip processors that are primarily used in embedded video and vision applications. Many processors in the family combine a DSP core based on the TMS320 C6000 VLIW DSP family and an ARM CPU core into a single system on chip. By using both a general-purpose processor and a DSP, the control and media portions can both be executed by separate processors. Later chips in the family included DSP-only and ARM-only processors. All the later chips integrate several accelerators to offload commodity application-specific processing from the processor cores to dedicated accelerators. Most notable among these are HDVICP, an H.264, SVC and MPEG-4 compression and decompression engine, ISP, an accelerator engine with methods for enhancing video primarily input from camera sensors and an OSD engine for display acceleration. Some of the newest processors also integrate a vision coprocessor in the SoC.

History

DaVinci processors were introduced at a time when embedded processors with homogeneous processor cores were widely used. These processors were based either on cores that could do signal processing optimally, like DSPs or GPUs or based on cores that could do general-purpose processing optimally, like PowerPC, ARM, and StrongARM. By using both a general-purpose processor and a DSP on a single chip, the control and media portions can both be executed by processors that excel at their respective tasks. By providing a bundled offering with system and application software, evaluation modules and debug tools based on Code Composer Studio, TI DaVinci processors were intended to win over a broader set of customers looking to add video features to their electronic products. TI announced its first DaVinci branded video processors, the DM6443 and DM6446, on 5 December 2005. A year later, TI followed up with DSP only versions of the chips in the family, called DM643x (DM6431, DM6433, DM6435, DM6437). On January 15, 2007, TI announced DM6441 that is pin-pin compatible with DM6446, but a lower end version With increased investment and significant focus on the DaVinci product line, following products were announced:

May 21, 2007 — TMS320DM648 — Processor offering $40 reduction in BOM for security applications Sep 4, 2007 — TMS320DM355 — Sub $10 ARM+co-processor chip for MPEG-4 encode/decode Dec 30, 2007 — TMS320DM6467 — 10x performance improvement over DM6446 Jul 18, 2008 — TMS320DM335 — ISP only version of DM355 Nov 18, 2008 — TMS320DM357 — Low cost realtime D1 H.264 video encode March 3, 2009 — TMS320DM365 — Sub $10 ARM+co-processor chip for 720p30 and 1080p H.264 encode/decode March 18, 2010 — TMS320DM8168 — 36x channels of realtime D-1 H.264 encode/decode or 6x channels of realtime HD H.264 encode/decode April 14, 2010 — TMS320DM368 — Pin-pin compatible processor with DM365 that can do 1080p30 H.264 encode/decode May 10, 2010 — DMVA2 — Pin-pin compatible processor with DM365 and DM368 that can do analytics in addition to H.264 compression Mar 1, 2011 — TMS320DM8148 — 12x channels of D-1 H.264 encode performance with DSP for analytics Dec 3, 2012 — DM385 and DM8107 — ARM+co-processor chips that does 1080p60 encode/decode and high quality image processing. DM8107 was for multi-channel DVR/NVR market Apr 10, 2013 — DM369 — ARM+co-processor chip pin-pin compatible with DM365, DM365 and DMVA2, with enhanced low-light performance Oct 29, 2013 — DM388, DMVA3, DM383 — ARM+co-processor chip pin-pin compatible with DM385, adding enhanced video quality and analytics Today, DaVinci processors are used in various video and vision applications, including IP Security cameras, DVR/NVR systems, car blackboxes (car dvr or cab cam), drones, and so on.

Processors Many of these model numbers should, formally, be prefixed by TMS320; the prefix is usually omitted for brevity. For example, the full part number for the DM6446 begins with TMS320DM6446 and has a suffix indicating its packaging type (a BGA flavor) and temperature rating.

Peripherals The DaVinci processor families include a number of on-chip peripherals. Depending on the particular device, these may include:

CCD Controller for digital camera/camcorder applications BT.656 and MIPI CSI-2 video/camera input interface Support for memory cards such as CompactFlash, SD card and MMC ATA interface Connectivity, including USB 2.0 Host and Client modes, VLYNQ (interface for FPGA, Wireless LAN, PCI), EMAC (Ethernet MAC) with MDIO GPIO Enhanced DMA Interrupt controller Digital LCD controller Serial interfaces, including SPI, I²C, and I²S, UART Histogram, autofocus, autoexposure, and auto-white-balance (H3A) acceleration Image resize acceleration A/D and D/A converters for analog video input and output

Libraries Most of the TMS320 DSPs include a TMS320 Chip Support Library (CSL), which is an API used to control the peripherals. However, since the philosophy for the DaVinci was to allow the ARM/Linux side to control the peripherals via Linux drivers, support for the CSL on the DM644x (dual-core ARM/DSP) is not currently available for the DSP.

Operating systems

The DSP included in many DaVinci-based devices generally runs TI's TI-RTOS Kernel real-time operating system. When multiple, heterogeneous cores are included in the device (e.g. DM644x), DSP/BIOS Link drivers run on both the ARM processor and the DSP to provide communication between the two. A number of operating systems for the DaVinci ARM and support DaVinci and the DSP/BIOS Link drivers:

FreeBSD Linux kernel Mentor Graphics Nucleus PLUS RTOS Green Hills Software INTEGRITY RTOS QNX Neutrino Windows CE LEOs (RTOS)

See also Texas Instruments OMAP Canon DIGIC Processors DVPB-HD

References

External links DaVinci Home Page Archived 2014-08-07 at the Wayback Machine DaVinci Developers Wiki Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine (hosted by TI) Linux DaVinci information catalog Archived 2014-06-04 at the Wayback Machine Texas Instruments IPCamera Reference Designs based on DaVinci processors Texas Instruments DVR/NVR Reference Designs based on DaVinci processors Texas Instruments Car black box Reference Designs based on DaVinci processors

Illustrations

Texas Instruments DaVinci: TI DaVinci processors were originally targeted for video applications and were called Video DSPs — TI DaVinci processors were originally targeted for video applications and were called Video DSPs

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Texas Instruments DaVinci

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Texas Instruments DaVinci claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Texas Instruments DaVinci before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Texas Instruments DaVinci ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Texas Instruments DaVinci

In research: Texas Instruments DaVinci appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Texas Instruments DaVinci in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Texas Instruments DaVinci is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Digital signal processors, Texas Instruments hardware, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Texas Instruments DaVinci outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Texas Instruments DaVinci in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Texas Instruments DaVinci means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Texas Instruments DaVinci out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Texas Instruments DaVinci in simple terms?

Why does Texas Instruments DaVinci matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Texas Instruments DaVinci?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Texas Instruments DaVinci.