DSP resource board powers telecomms applications

Surf Communication Solutions has developed the SurfExpress/PCIe, a RoHS-compliant single-lane, half-length, full-height PCI Express form-factor DSP farm with VoIP, audio, video and data processing capabilities. Providing two gigabit Ethernet ports and a CT bus for additional TDM interfaces, the SurfExpress/PCIe is designed to meet the requirements of VoIP enterprise-scale media servers, media gateways, 3G-324M video servers, MMSC content adaptation engines, and CTI applications. Optimised for mobile applications, the SurfExpress/PCIe provides convergence of audio, video and data across wireless and wireline networks.

It supports an unprecedented 1088 voice ports on a single PCI slot, and up to 224 low-resolution video ports on a single PCI slot.

The SurfExpress/PCIe uses a highly innovative patent-pending design featuring the SurfDocker modular plug-in, which carries up to four pairs of mixed types of DSPs and supports a variety of configurations to meet the application developer's requirements.

This paradigm allows varying types of DSPs to be assembled on the PCI Express carrier, including Texas Instruments communications infrastructure optimised portfolio of DSPs.

Up to four SurfDocker modules can be plugged into a single SurfExpress/PCIe, for a total of eight DSPs per PCI Express board.

This flexible and scalable hardware design results in a cost-effective solution providing reduced time to market.

The SurfExpress/PCIe comes complete with SurfUP, Surf's telecom-ready comprehensive media processing software that perform concurrent processing of audio, video and data (fax + modem) on TI's DSPs, enabling real-time intelligent resource management and load balancing for maximum flexibility.

This makes the SurfExpress/PCIe a powerful content adaptation platform enabling service interoperability among various clients and networks.

'The distributed fabric approach that we developed for our industry-leading AMC form factor, and adopted when designing the SurfExpress/PCIe, enables us to support all the cutting-edge interfaces - such as GigE, PCI Express, and more - simultaneously on the same module', states Annie Kaufman, Director of Product Management at Surf Communication Solutions.

'Add to that TI's robust DSP roadmap, the result is an innovative PCI Express DSP farm that is powerful yet flexible and cost-effective'.

'Texas Instruments' TMS320C64x family of DSPs are optimised to handle converged applications that require a high-performance significant memory and support for a wide variety of codecs for audio, video, and wireless applications', said John Smrstik, Worldwide Marketing Manager for TI's Communications Infrastructure Group.

'Surf's SurfExpress/PCIe DSP resource board takes advantage of these qualities and presents a flexible high-capacity programmable platform for processing-intense telecom applications required by today's enterprise equipment manufacturers'.

The SurfExpress/PCIe is currently on display in Surf's booth at 3GSM, Hall 2/1 Stand A64.