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| Many
associate Yamaha with musical instruments, audio components and even
motor products, not necessarily with computer chips and microprocessors.
However, Yamaha is a leading manufacturers of microprocessors. It
was Yamaha’s commitment to excellence in audio and home cinema
applications that motivated us to enter the high-tech manufacturing
business. To date, Yamaha has designed, patented, and manufactured
some of the world’s most sophisticated Application Specific
Integrated Circuits (ASIC). |
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General
Purpose Integrated Circuits (GPIC) vs. Application Specific Integrated
Circuits (ASIC)
General-purpose LSIs can be used for many different products from microwave
oven to a garage door opener, simply by changing the software program.
General-purpose devices are common because they have a broader use. They
offer greater flexibility, but this flexibility often comes at the cost
of performance. In order for it to function in a variety of applications,
a general-purpose device is designed with inherent comprises forced into
its engineering. The architecture of a GPIC can consist of large amounts
of wasted space that are only used by certain application and not the
others. Wasted space can lead to loss of efficiency and must be compensated
for, usually by faster clock speeds and other compromises.
Application-specific
LSIs are only designed for a single purpose, such as HiFi DSP or Cinema
DSP and, therefore, operate with greater efficiency. There is no wasted
space because every part of an LSI is used for a specific purpose. When
comparing the performance of various LSIs, it is important to take the
application it is used for into consideration. For example, an LSI that
performs excellently in a microwave oven and a dozen other applications
may be a poor candidate for an AV receiver design. Simply put, one wouldn’t
send a chartered accountant out to do bypass surgery. Yamaha designs many
of its own LSIs for audio/video applications.
Find out
how Yamaha’s application-specific LSIs are implemented:
CINEMA
DSP
HiFi DSP
Silent Cinema DSP
Virtual Cinema DSP
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