Misplaced Pages

#321678

58-556: During the development of the MSX Turbo R, ASCII Corporation considered various processors, both compatible and incompatible with the Z80, as candidates. At that time, Kazuya Kishioka ( 岸岡和也 ) , a company employee, was researching and developing an ASIC that was a high-speed version of the Z80 and largely customized for the MSX architecture. For software compatibility with older MSX software,

116-437: A USB on the computer it is used with. Call-in dictation systems allow one to record their dictations over the phone. With call in dictation systems, the author dials a phone number, enters a PIN and starts dictating. Touch tone controls allow for start, pause, playback, and sending of dictation audio file. The call-in dictation systems usually feature a Pod that can be plugged into a phone line. The pod can then be plugged into

174-433: A computer to store dictation audio recording in compatible transcription or management software. Currently there are several digital dictation applications available for mobile phones. With mobile dictation apps, one can record, edit, and send dictation files over networks. Wireless transfer of dictation files decreases turnaround time. Mobile dictation applications allow users to stay connected to dictation workflows through

232-420: A file format and has little or no bearing on the encoding rate ( kbit/s ), size or audio quality of the resulting file.) Digital dictation offers several advantages over traditional cassette tape based dictation: Despite the advances in technology, analog media are still widely used in dictation recording due to its flexibility, permanence, and robustness. In some cases, speech is recorded where sound quality

290-562: A gate array. What distinguishes a structured ASIC from a gate array is that in a gate array, the predefined metal layers serve to make manufacturing turnaround faster. In a structured ASIC, the use of predefined metallization is primarily to reduce cost of the mask sets as well as making the design cycle time significantly shorter. For example, in a cell-based or gate-array design the user must often design power, clock, and test structures themselves. By contrast, these are predefined in most structured ASICs and therefore can save time and expense for

348-658: A general rule, if you can find a design in a data book , then it is probably not an ASIC, but there are some exceptions. For example, two ICs that might or might not be considered ASICs are a controller chip for a PC and a chip for a modem . Both of these examples are specific to an application (which is typical of an ASIC) but are sold to many different system vendors (which is typical of standard parts). ASICs such as these are sometimes called application-specific standard products (ASSPs). Examples of ASSPs are encoding/decoding chip, Ethernet network interface controller chip, etc. Digital voice recorder A dictation machine

406-427: A low-cost I/O solution aimed at handling the computer's graphics . Customization occurred by varying a metal interconnect mask. Gate arrays had complexities of up to a few thousand gates; this is now called mid-scale integration . Later versions became more generalized, with different base dies customized by both metal and polysilicon layers. Some base dies also include random-access memory (RAM) elements. In

464-589: A manufacturer held as a stock wafer never gives 100% circuit utilization . Often difficulties in routing the interconnect require migration onto a larger array device with a consequent increase in the piece part price. These difficulties are often a result of the layout EDA software used to develop the interconnect. Pure, logic-only gate-array design is rarely implemented by circuit designers today, having been almost entirely replaced by field-programmable devices. The most prominent of such devices are field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) which can be programmed by

522-697: A mechanical groove into a plastic belt instead of into a wax cylinder. This was later replaced by magnetic tape recording. While reel-to-reel tape was used for dictation, the inconvenience of threading tape spools led to development of more convenient formats, notably the Compact Cassette , Mini-Cassette , and Microcassette . Digital dictation became possible in the 1990s, as falling computer memory prices made possible pocket-sized digital voice recorders that stored sound on computer memory chips without moving parts. Many early 21st-century digital cameras and smartphones have this capability built in. In

580-476: A method of obtaining low cost prototypes. Often called shuttles, these MPWs, containing several designs, run at regular, scheduled intervals on a "cut and go" basis, usually with limited liability on the part of the manufacturer. The contract involves delivery of bare dies or the assembly and packaging of a handful of devices. The service usually involves the supply of a physical design database (i.e. masking information or pattern generation (PG) tape). The manufacturer

638-401: A much higher skill requirement on the part of the design team. For digital-only designs, however, "standard-cell" cell libraries, together with modern CAD systems, can offer considerable performance/cost benefits with low risk. Automated layout tools are quick and easy to use and also offer the possibility to "hand-tweak" or manually optimize any performance-limiting aspect of the design. This

SECTION 10

#1732790820322

696-461: A network, such as the Internet. There are two types of digital dictation software: Recordings can be made over the telephone, on a computer or via a hand held dictation device that is " docked " to a computer. Digital dictation is different from speech recognition where audio is analyzed by a computer using speech algorithms in an attempt to transcribe the document. With digital dictation

754-448: A removable film of tinfoil (the actual recording medium, which was prone to damage during installation or removal. Tainter received a separate patent for a tube assembly machine to automatically produce the coiled cardboard tubes, which served as the foundation for the wax cylinder records. Besides being far easier to handle, the wax recording medium also allowed for lengthier recordings and created superior playback quality. Additionally

812-448: A third-party as sub-components of a larger ASIC. They may be provided in the form of a hardware description language (often termed a "soft macro"), or as a fully routed design that could be printed directly onto an ASIC's mask (often termed a "hard macro"). Many organizations now sell such pre-designed cores – CPUs, Ethernet, USB or telephone interfaces – and larger organizations may have an entire department or division to produce cores for

870-760: Is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder . The name " Dictaphone " is a trademark of the company of the same name, but it has also become a common term for all dictation machines, as a genericized trademark . Alexander Graham Bell and his two associates took Edison's tinfoil phonograph and modified it considerably to make it reproduce sound from wax instead of tinfoil. They began their work at Bell's Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C.In 1879, and continued until they were granted basic patents in 1886 for recording in wax. Thomas A. Edison had invented

928-496: Is a manufacturing method in which diffused layers, each consisting of transistors and other active devices , are predefined and electronics wafers containing such devices are "held in stock" or unconnected prior to the metallization stage of the fabrication process . The physical design process defines the interconnections of these layers for the final device. For most ASIC manufacturers, this consists of between two and nine metal layers with each layer running perpendicular to

986-573: Is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficiency video codec . Application-specific standard product chips are intermediate between ASICs and industry standard integrated circuits like the 7400 series or the 4000 series . ASIC chips are typically fabricated using metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) technology, as MOS integrated circuit chips. As feature sizes have shrunk and chip design tools improved over

1044-527: Is designed by using basic logic gates, circuits or layout specially for a design. Structured ASIC design (also referred to as " platform ASIC design ") is a relatively new trend in the semiconductor industry, resulting in some variation in its definition. However, the basic premise of a structured ASIC is that both manufacturing cycle time and design cycle time are reduced compared to cell-based ASIC, by virtue of there being pre-defined metal layers (thus reducing manufacturing time) and pre-characterization of what

1102-444: Is intermediate between § Gate-array and semi-custom design and § Full-custom design in terms of its non-recurring engineering and recurring component costs as well as performance and speed of development (including time to market ). By the late 1990s, logic synthesis tools became available. Such tools could compile HDL descriptions into a gate-level netlist . Standard-cell integrated circuits (ICs) are designed in

1160-468: Is largely because ASIC devices are capable of integrating large blocks of system functionality, and systems on a chip (SoCs) require glue logic , communications subsystems (such as networks on chip ), peripherals , and other components rather than only functional units and basic interconnection. In their frequent usages in the field, the terms "gate array" and "semi-custom" are synonymous when referring to ASICs. Process engineers more commonly use

1218-468: Is often referred to as a "silicon foundry" due to the low involvement it has in the process. An application-specific standard product or ASSP is an integrated circuit that implements a specific function that appeals to a wide market. As opposed to ASICs that combine a collection of functions and are designed by or for one customer , ASSPs are available as off-the-shelf components. ASSPs are used in all industries, from automotive to communications. As

SECTION 20

#1732790820322

1276-499: Is on the silicon (thus reducing design cycle time). Definition from Foundations of Embedded Systems states that: In a "structured ASIC" design, the logic mask-layers of a device are predefined by the ASIC vendor (or in some cases by a third party). Design differentiation and customization is achieved by creating custom metal layers that create custom connections between predefined lower-layer logic elements. "Structured ASIC" technology

1334-596: Is paramount and transcription unnecessary, e.g. for broadcasting a theatre play ; recording techniques closer to high-fidelity music recording are more appropriate. Portable, hand held, digital recorders are the modern replacement for along with handhelds. Digital portables allow transfer of recordings by docking or plugging into a computer. Digital recorders eliminate the need for cassette tapes. Professional digital hand held recorders are available with slide switch, push button, fingerprint locking, and barcode scanning options. Another common way to record digital dictation

1392-399: Is seen as bridging the gap between field-programmable gate arrays and "standard-cell" ASIC designs. Because only a small number of chip layers must be custom-produced, "structured ASIC" designs have much smaller non-recurring expenditures (NRE) than "standard-cell" or "full-custom" chips, which require that a full mask set be produced for every design. This is effectively the same definition as

1450-408: Is that standard-cell design uses the manufacturer's cell libraries that have been used in potentially hundreds of other design implementations and therefore are of much lower risk than a full custom design. Standard cells produce a design density that is cost-effective, and they can also integrate IP cores and static random-access memory (SRAM) effectively, unlike gate arrays. Gate array design

1508-415: Is with a computer dictation microphone. There are several different types of computer dictation microphones available, but each one has similar features and operation. Olympus Direct Rec, Philips SpeechMike, and Dictaphone Powermic are all digital computer dictation microphones that also feature push button control for operating dictation or speech recognition software. The dictation microphone operates through

1566-430: The open-source software movement in hardware design. Soft macros are often process-independent (i.e. they can be fabricated on a wide range of manufacturing processes and different manufacturers). Hard macros are process-limited and usually further design effort must be invested to migrate (port) to a different process or manufacturer. Some manufacturers and IC design houses offer multi-project wafer service (MPW) as

1624-403: The 1990s, improvements in voice recognition technology began to allow computers to transcribe recorded audio dictation into text form, a task that previously required human secretaries or transcribers. The files generated with digital recorders vary in size, depending on the manufacturer and the format the user chooses. The most common file formats that digital recorders generate have one of

1682-513: The CPU is halted for 4μs, this time is used to refresh a block of the RAM. Since there's no refresh in between fetch instructions, and the waitstate is removed due to faster RAM chips, simple instructions can be issued using only one cycle. This cycle would be cycle 2 in the Z80 example above; cycle 1 becomes optional, and it's only issued when the program crosses a 256-byte boundary. All this only applies to

1740-515: The Graphophones initially deployed foot treadles to rotate the recordings, then wind-up clockwork drive mechanisms, and finally migrated to electric motors, instead of the manual crank that was used on Edison's phonograph. The numerous improvements allowed for a sound quality that was significantly better than Edison's machine. Shortly after Thomas Edison invented the phonograph , the first device for recording sound, in 1877, he thought that

1798-475: The Micromatrix family of bipolar diode–transistor logic (DTL) and transistor–transistor logic (TTL) arrays. Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology opened the door to the broad commercialization of gate arrays. The first CMOS gate arrays were developed by Robert Lipp, in 1974 for International Microcircuits, Inc. (IMI). Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) standard-cell technology

R800 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1856-461: The R800 uses the same instruction set as the Z80, with only minor but useful additions, such as 8x8-bit and 16x16-bit multiplication instructions called MULUB ( 8-bit ), and MULUW ( 16-bit ). Also, many of the undocumented Z80 instructions were made official, including all the opcodes for instructions dealing with IX and IY as 8-bit registers (IXH, IXL, IYH, IYL). As the R800 is not based directly on

1914-476: The Z80 can in some situations execute in as little as one bus cycle (1-2 clocks) on the R800, due to the degree of pipelining made possible by this full width ALU. The maximum CPU clock speed used on this new MSX was 14.32 MHz —four times as fast as the original 3.57 MHz speed used in the older MSX, while the bus clock was increased to 7.16 MHz. The data bus remained 8-bit to maintain compatibility with old hardware. Additional changes were made in

1972-520: The Z80, but stems from the Z800 family, it lacks some of the other undocumented Z80 features. For instance, the undocumented flags represented by bits 3 and 5 of the F register do not hold the same values as in the Z80 (causing it to fail ZEXALL tests) and the undocumented opcode often called SLL is just an alias of the SLA instruction. Being a much newer design, the R800 implementation was quite different from

2030-408: The ability to integrate analog components and other pre-designed —and thus fully verified—components, such as microprocessor cores, that form a system on a chip . The disadvantages of full-custom design can include increased manufacturing and design time, increased non-recurring engineering costs, more complexity in the computer-aided design (CAD) and electronic design automation systems, and

2088-477: The address for the fetch. The R800 avoids this by remembering the last known state of the higher 8-bits. If the next instruction is in the same 256-byte boundaries, the higher 8-bits are not set, and a cycle is saved. However, on the Z80, the refresh cycles destroy the information on the higher bits, so a workaround was needed. The solution used in the R800 was to refresh entire blocks of RAM, instead of refreshing one row of RAM on each instruction issued. Each 30 μs ,

2146-559: The design to be brought into manufacturing more quickly. Cell libraries of logical primitives are usually provided by the device manufacturer as part of the service. Although they will incur no additional cost, their release will be covered by the terms of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and they will be regarded as intellectual property by the manufacturer. Usually, their physical design will be pre-defined so they could be termed "hard macros". What most engineers understand as " intellectual property " are IP cores , designs purchased from

2204-410: The designer compared to gate-array based designs. Likewise, the design tools used for structured ASIC can be substantially lower cost and easier (faster) to use than cell-based tools, because they do not have to perform all the functions that cell-based tools do. In some cases, the structured ASIC vendor requires customized tools for their device (e.g., custom physical synthesis) be used, also allowing for

2262-473: The extensions WAV, WMA and MP3. Many dictation machines record in the DSS and DS2 format. Dictation audio can be recorded in various audio file formats . Most digital dictation systems use a lossy form of audio compression based on modelling of the vocal tract to minimize hard disk space and optimize network utilization as files are transferred between users. (Note that WAV is not an audio encoding format, but

2320-519: The fast RAM used on the MSX Turbo-R. External hardware, connected through cartridge slots, uses timings similar to Z80. Not even the internal ROM of Turbo-R is fast enough for this fetch scheme, so additional chips on the Turbo-R can mirror the contents of ROM into RAM, in order to make it run faster. ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit ( ASIC / ˈ eɪ s ɪ k / )

2378-476: The following conceptual stages referred to as electronics design flow , although these stages overlap significantly in practice: These steps, implemented with a level of skill common in the industry, almost always produce a final device that correctly implements the original design, unless flaws are later introduced by the physical fabrication process. The design steps also called design flow , are also common to standard product design. The significant difference

R800 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2436-519: The functionality of ASICs. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the modern-day technology improvement on breadboards , meaning that they are not made to be application-specific as opposed to ASICs. Programmable logic blocks and programmable interconnects allow the same FPGA to be used in many different applications. For smaller designs or lower production volumes, FPGAs may be more cost-effective than an ASIC design, even in production. The non-recurring engineering (NRE) cost of an ASIC can run into

2494-520: The implementation of their designs. A solution to this problem, which also yielded a much higher density device, was the implementation of standard cells . Every ASIC manufacturer could create functional blocks with known electrical characteristics, such as propagation delay , capacitance and inductance, that could also be represented in third-party tools. Standard-cell design is the utilization of these functional blocks to achieve very high gate density and good electrical performance. Standard-cell design

2552-514: The main use for the new device would be for recording speech in business settings. (Given the low audio frequency of earliest versions of the phonograph, recording music may not have seemed to be a major application.) Some early phonographs were indeed used this way, but this did not become common until the production of reusable wax cylinders in the late 1880s. The differentiation of office dictation devices from other early phonographs, which commonly had attachments for making one's own recordings,

2610-423: The mid-1980s, a designer would choose an ASIC manufacturer and implement their design using the design tools available from the manufacturer. While third-party design tools were available, there was not an effective link from the third-party design tools to the layout and actual semiconductor process performance characteristics of the various ASIC manufacturers. Most designers used factory-specific tools to complete

2668-413: The millions of dollars. Therefore, device manufacturers typically prefer FPGAs for prototyping and devices with low production volume and ASICs for very large production volumes where NRE costs can be amortized across many devices. Early ASICs used gate array technology. By 1967, Ferranti and Interdesign were manufacturing early bipolar gate arrays. In 1967, Fairchild Semiconductor introduced

2726-653: The next five years developing the New York City electric light and power systems. By 1881 the Volta associates had success in improving an Edison tinfoil machine to some extent. Wax was put in the grooves of the heavy iron cylinder, and no tinfoil was used. The basic distinction between the Edison's first phonograph patent, and the Bell and [Charles Sumner] Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording. Edison's method

2784-546: The old Z80. The changes were similar to the Z800 , Z280 , Z380 and eZ80 lines of Z80 compatible processors. The original Z80 uses an unusual 4-bit ALU hardware internally, a solution actually able to compete with similar CPUs using full hardwired 8-bit ALU logic (such as its immediate precursor, the Intel 8080 ). However, the R800 designers implemented a full 16-bit ALU in order to keep up with its more pipelined execution. Instructions like ADD HL,BC that takes 11 clock cycles on

2842-404: The one below it. Non-recurring engineering costs are much lower than full custom designs, as photolithographic masks are required only for the metal layers. Production cycles are much shorter, as metallization is a comparatively quick process; thereby accelerating time to market . Gate-array ASICs are always a compromise between rapid design and performance as mapping a given design onto what

2900-463: The phonograph in 1877, but the fame bestowed on him for this invention — sometimes called his most original — was not due to its efficiency. Recording with his tinfoil phonograph was too difficult to be practical, as the tinfoil tore easily, and even when the stylus was properly adjusted. Although Edison had hit upon the secret of sound recording , immediately after his discovery he did not improve it, allegedly because of an agreement to spend

2958-549: The rest of the organization. The company ARM only sells IP cores, making it a fabless manufacturer . Indeed, the wide range of functions now available in structured ASIC design is a result of the phenomenal improvement in electronics in the late 1990s and early 2000s; as a core takes a lot of time and investment to create, its re-use and further development cuts product cycle times dramatically and creates better products. Additionally, open-source hardware organizations such as OpenCores are collecting free IP cores, paralleling

SECTION 50

#1732790820322

3016-414: The term "semi-custom", while "gate-array" is more commonly used by logic (or gate-level) designers. By contrast, full-custom ASIC design defines all the photolithographic layers of the device. Full-custom design is used for both ASIC design and for standard product design. The benefits of full-custom design include reduced area (and therefore recurring component cost), performance improvements, and also

3074-418: The user and thus offer minimal tooling charges, non-recurring engineering, only marginally increased piece part cost, and comparable performance. Today, gate arrays are evolving into structured ASICs that consist of a large IP core like a CPU , digital signal processor units, peripherals , standard interfaces , integrated memories , SRAM , and a block of reconfigurable , uncommitted logic. This shift

3132-459: The way the CPU fetches opcodes . The original Z80 uses two cycles to fetch a simple instruction like OR A, plus two cycles for refresh. An additional waitstate is issued on the MSX architecture. A review of the fetch mechanism in a typical MSX environment helps in explaining the R800: Since most implementations of MSX use RAM disposed in a 256×256 bytes block, two cycles are required to set

3190-460: The years, the maximum complexity (and hence functionality) possible in an ASIC has grown from 5,000 logic gates to over 100 million. Modern ASICs often include entire microprocessors , memory blocks including ROM , RAM , EEPROM , flash memory and other large building blocks. Such an ASIC is often termed a SoC ( system-on-chip ). Designers of digital ASICs often use a hardware description language (HDL), such as Verilog or VHDL , to describe

3248-630: Was gradual. The machine marketed by the Edison Records company was trademarked as the "Ediphone". Following the invention of the audion tube in 1906, electric microphones gradually replaced the purely acoustical recording methods of earlier dictaphones by the late 1930s. In 1945, the SoundScriber , Gray Audograph and Edison Voicewriter , which cut grooves into a plastic disc, was introduced, and two years later Dictaphone replaced wax cylinders with their Dictabelt technology, which cut

3306-448: Was introduced by Fairchild and Motorola , under the trade names Micromosaic and Polycell, in the 1970s. This technology was later successfully commercialized by VLSI Technology (founded 1979) and LSI Logic (1981). A successful commercial application of gate array circuitry was found in the low-end 8-bit ZX81 and ZX Spectrum personal computers , introduced in 1981 and 1982. These were used by Sinclair Research (UK) essentially as

3364-761: Was to indent the sound waves on a piece of tinfoil, while Bell and Tainter's invention called for cutting, or 'engraving', the sound waves into a wax record with a sharp recording stylus. Among the later improvements by the Volta Associates , the Graphophone used a cutting stylus to create lateral zig-zag grooves of uniform depth into the wax-coated cardboard cylinders, rather than the up-down vertically-cut grooves of Edison's contemporary phonograph machine designs. Notably, Bell and Tainter developed wax-coated cardboard cylinders for their record cylinders , instead of Edison's cast iron cylinder, covered with

#321678