RTDX permits developers to transmit and receive data between a host and a target DSP without

stopping their applications and to view live or saved data via an easy-to-use Object Linking and

Embedding (OLE) Application Program Interface (API).

Key Benefits:

• Provides industry’s first continuous, real-time code visibility into running applications

• Significantly shortens development time

• Viewable on industry-standard, application-specific or customer-developed visualization packages
  

• Well-suited for full-speed control, servo and audio applications

Standard element of many new toolsets for TI DSPs

TI DSP Solutions excel in the real-time environment of embedded systems. Now, Real-Time Data
Exchange (RTDX), TI’s latest innovative technology, extends the company’s leadership. RTDX gives
designers the industry’s first DSP system that provides real-time, continuous visibility into the way
target applications operate in the real world. RTDX allows system developers to transfer data
between the host computer and DSP devices without stopping their target application.
This important breakthrough shortens development time by giving designers a much more realistic
representation of the way their systems really operate. Just as modern medical diagnostic equipment
provides a real-time, ongoing analysis of the way a patient’s body is functioning, RTDX allows
designers to continually monitor their systems and gain real-time insight into their running
applications.

Real-time information means design power

RTDX provides significant benefits over alternative methods of system debugging. Until now,
designers were forced to stop their application to exchange data with the host computer. This
intrusive method of debugging may also yield misleading information since the isolated snapshot of a
halted high-speed application does not present an accurate view of the system’s real-world operation.
Another alternative to RTDX is to incorporate in-circuit emulation (ICE) structures to perform real-time
monitoring. However, this too does not present an accurate depiction of device performance
since the ICE structure is not typically integrated into the production component. RTDX eliminates
the need for an extra pre-production version of a chip with ICE structures. It uses relatively small
built-in test structures that are part of the production device, yielding performance identical to that of
the finished product.


How RTDX is empowering DSP design

Functionally, RTDX works in the following way:
TI supplies a very small software library that runs on the target DSP. The designer's application
makes C or assembly code calls to pass data to or from TI's data exchange libraries. These libraries
then utilize the eXtended Development System (XDS) scan-based emulators to move the data to or
from the host platform. Most important, these actions take place while the application is running on
the DSP as the XDS emulator moves the data.
Hard disk drive application viewed using Quinn-Curtis’ Real-Time Graphics Tools

Initially, RTDX will transmit data at up to 8 kilobytes per second, making it well-suited for a variety
of control, servo and audio applications running at full speed. For example, wireless
telecommunications manufacturers can capture the outputs of their vocoder algorithms to check the
implementations of speech applications. Embedded control systems will also benefit. Hard disk drive
designers can test their applications without crashing the drive with improper signals to the servo
motor, and engine control designers will be able to analyze changing factors like heat and
environmental conditions while the control application is running. For all of these applications, users
can select visualization tools that display information in a way that is most meaningful to them.
Future TI DSPs will feature RTDX bandwidth increases of ten times or more, providing greater
system visibility to an even greater number of applications.

RTDX - Availability

RTDX represents a fundamental new approach to system debugging, providing designers with an on-going
flow of dynamic information about their system’s performance. Initially available on TI’s
TMS320C54x DSPs, RTDX will be a standard component of many of TI’s new DSPs and other
processor platforms, including the breakthrough 1600 MIPS DSPs. RTDX is part of a group of TI
hardware and software technologies that is giving manufacturers better and more efficient ways of
designing and implementing products.
For more information If you would like more information about how TI DSP Solutions with RTDX
functionality can equip you with the tools to meet tomorrow’s market challenges, contact your local
TI distributor.