More than ever, the electronics industry is being driven by the consumer's need for instantaneous results. Whether we dial up our Internet provider and want instant access to all that lies within, including audio, graphics and video, or we punch in a number on our mobile phone and demand an instant, clear connection from a satellite, we don't want to wait for results. Our new intolerance for latency stems from years of longing for computer and telecommunications products that actually respond to complex requests in something approaching real-time. That day is coming soon, and DSP-based "soft" solutions will deliver the news.

Manufacturers of consumer products are racing to keep up with the relentless march toward real-time performance. With much gnashing of teeth, the industry has come to realize that some of its tried-and-true theories about product development are no longer viable. Most notably, it is accepting the need to keep hardware changes to a minimum while updating capabilities in software.

It's a giant step for the electronics industry, which has traditionally incorporated changes in its products only by introducing new ones. Consider, for example, how many modems you have owned since the days of 300 bits/second. From now on, similar changes will be incorporated in the same modem (or other device) you already own, simply by copying files from a diskette, or more likely, downloading them from the manufacturer's Web site.

Cost, the universal driving factor of the electronics marketplace, has long dictated that in new markets with low volumes, performance enhancements are best implemented with software, because hardware in small quantities is generally more expensive. When volumes increase, a point is reached beyond which hardware modifications are less expensive than software because the components can be procured in huge quantities.

However, since volume production today is usually reached almost immediately after a product is introduced, logic dictates that enhancements be made in hardware from the beginning, forgoing the software solution. Nevertheless, this is increasingly not the case, for several reasons:

- The market has rewritten the formula. With mask generation running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, engineering time in short supply and time-to- market shrinking, it takes too long and costs too much to implement upgrades, bug fixes and new features with hardware alone, even when volumes are huge.

- Consumers need a less painful upgrade path. Although users desire more responsive performance and more features, they cannot be expected to constantly buy new equipment to obtain them, especially when the new features and capabilities are appearing monthly.

- Software upgrades are extremely marketable. Manufacturers of products such as modems are well-served by allowing buyers to upgrade instantly by, for example, downloading software from the manufacturer's Web site.

- Upgrades quickly reach the customer. New standards, features and improvements can be obtained by the consumer in a fraction of the time required by the hardware route.

- New control and revenue generators are available for wireless-service providers. With the ability to activate or deactivate a feature "over the air," service providers give their subscribers the option to use only the features they desire. When the only cellular-telephone option was call waiting, this was of little significance. But the new digital personal communications services (PCS) offer a host of features, making this a marketable commodity.

For these reasons, software is increasingly the chosen vehicle for change, even at high production volumes, where hardware changes were always the accepted technique. It is simply faster and much less expensive for manufacturers to introduce new products and upgrade those in the field with software rather than hardware.

Data communications standards and wireless PCS provide good examples of how the market is erasing the hardware/software crossover point. Just when modem manufacturers had V.32 down cold, along came V32.bis, then V34 and V34+, and now x2. In the past, each time data communications technology boosted speed to the next plateau, many modem manufacturers implemented the changes with modified and additional hardware along with software. But many V.34+ modems from various manufacturers will be software-upgradable due to this change in product concept.

In the wireless example, communications protocols or "air interface standards," such as IS-95 and IS-136, have come from birth to relative maturity in only a few short years. Manufacturers of wireless products have been tracking their progress through the technical and regulatory maze in order to know which ones to support and how to design products that incorporate them.

Multiple features

In addition, the phones need to support many features such as alphanumeric paging, voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, Internet access and data communications capability (such as Cellular Digital Packet Data). They must also operate with not just two, but ultimately many air interface standards, all within a single, palm-size enclosure. For example, if a phone handles full- rate and enhanced full-rate Global System for Mobile Communications protocols today, it may also need to accommodate IS-95, IS-136 or any of the other standards tomorrow. Finally, vocoders in digital wireless phones must be replaced to provide higher-quality voice services.

The manufacturer of a wireless PCS set that handles three air interface standards has two choices: create three separate sections within the phone, or one section that can be programmed to be any one of the three by software. It's not hard to guess to which direction the industry is turning.

Software programmability makes it possible to implement these changes over the air by downloading code into a programmable, DSP-based subscriber set. The subscriber can even choose to use the slower speed, for a reduced per-minute air-time charge.

The major cellular and PCS phone manufacturers are already putting more flash memory in their products because the phone must be programmable to embrace what the future holds. In the early stages of programmable phones, the changes will be performed at a service center. But over-the-air modification will ultimately take over as the primary delivery method. File download could be done at times when communication traffic is light.

As a class of equipment, modems are far ahead of wireless, which is just now making the change to full DSP-based programmability. In modem design, V.32.bis was the turning point from hardware to software solutions. New communication standards like x2 must be added to the many existing standards that a modem must handle, right down to Bell 103. Implementing all of this in hardware, while maintaining the ability to accommodate future enhancements, is almost unimaginable.

The architecture of some of the more advanced modems has already changed to satisfy future needs. These products have remained almost the same since V.32.bis, with only minor hardware changes. Enhancements and new standards can be made in software, either via diskette or Web-site download. This was initially done for the convenience of the manufacturer, but is now available to the consumer.

Perhaps the most visible of these companies is U.S. Robotics, which developed x2 and is already shipping products with 56-kbit/s download capability. Since last year, the company has been shipping modems that can be upgraded in place from V.34 to x2 without hardware modification. The ability to do this stems from its extensive use of DSP, specifically the TMS320C5X family of devices.

Another likely candidate for DSP programmability is the television set-top converter, which soon will have to handle HDTV and Internet browsers as well as traditional NTSC TV. Rather than provide all of this capability in the set-top converter, only the required software need be resident, the remainder being downloaded when needed. This makes the converter less expensive to build and gives the cable company more control.Whether the end product is a wireless phone or a modem, it interfaces with the public communications network. As a result, it is possible to upgrade flash or RAM-based software in place via this network.

Many choices

In the case of wireless devices, a product may be programmed to simply receive stock quotes, to transmit and receive voice and data, to download billing and personal information, or to do them all. Think of it as a software platform rather than a device with a function predetermined at the factory.

Looking out a bit further, it's possible to imagine a wireless phone that looks for and determines the cost of the least expensive service provider at the moment I make the call, and then logs on to that system. The service provider identifies me and applies the features I have indicated I wish to use. It then downloads those features to the phone.

As the service provider adds features to the network, they are immediately available to me via over-the-air download, as are a virtually limitless number of other capabilities. Some enhancements can even be made transparently, much as Internet providers do today.

These are only a few obvious examples of where DSP-based software solutions are likely to be first realized in commercial products. But the potential applications are limitless. So in the future, perhaps we'll just download the means to do what we want over the Internet in real-time.

Source: Electronic Engineering Times