Cadence preps Tensilica for "always on" applications

Cadence Design Systems Inc. has ported the FreeMotion Library from Sensor Platforms Inc. to a Tensilica audio DSP to create a sensor fusion platform.

The Tensilica is suitable for "always-on" applications, being Cadence's smallest, lowest power DSP core. These features have been employed by Sensor Platforms to create an always-on sensor fusion and context awareness platform.

Cadence said it will release the FreeMotion Library on Tensilica in the second quarter of 2014.

The FreeMotion Library is a middleware layer that interprets inertial and other sensor data to determine the position and orientation of a device and the context of the user. The use of multiple sensor inputs increases reliability of the context awareness and helps reduce false positives. The "always-on" feature allows algorithms determine a context even when devices are not in use. However, if this feature is going to be employed, power consumption must at a minimum and context awareness must be suspended as battery levels reduce.

"The Cadence Tensilica HiFi DSP core lets device makers offload these functions from the applications processor, significantly extending battery life," said Frank Shemansky, SPI's VP of business development, in a statement issued by Cadence.

Sensor Platforms is a venture-funded company founded in 2004. The company recently announced that it has been working with Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. to provide sensor fusion for indoor navigation and activity-monitoring. The combination of a pedestrian dead reckoning algorithm combined with a Murata pressure sensor for determination of relative height currently under development, is expected to minimise the errors that build up when long distances are travelled without reference to satellite data, such as within a shopping mall.

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times Europe