The industry's fastest family of voltage-output digital-to-analog converters (DACs) has gained three new high-speed products, Texas Instruments (TI) announced. The new digital-to-analog converters, the fastest voltage-output DACs with serial interfaces on the market, bring unique programmability and a glueless interface capability to the design of systems based on TI's TMS320 digital signal processors (DSPs) and a variety of industry microcontrollers.

The TLV5604, TLV5614, and TLV5616 operate with supply voltages of 2.7 to 5.5 V, and offer flexibility in designing a wide range of stationary and mobile systems. Applications that will benefit include office equipment, cordless and wireless telephones, telecom line cards, mass storage devices, digitally controlled filters, and industrial process control, machine and motion control, and battery-powered test instruments.

"As the world leader in both the DSP and analog/mixed-signal markets, TI is committed to providing system designers the date converters they need for seamless implementation of DSP systems," said Tom Lahutsky, new product development manager for TI's data converter products. "TI's DAC portfolio gives designers the programmability, speed, easy interface, small packaging, and advanced process technology they need to optimize their DSP solutions."

High Speed and Design Flexibility

The three new devices offer a range of data conversion capabilities and numbers of on-chip DACs. The TLV5604 integrates four 10-bit DACs, the TLV5614 four 12-bit DACs, and the TLV5616 a single 12-bit DAC. With a one microsecond typical settling time, the devices are the fastest 10- and 12-bit voltage-output DACs with serial interfaces available today.

The converters were designed for flexibility, low power consumption, and space savings in system design. All three devices feature an easy-to-use four-wire serial bus that interfaces gluelessly to TMS320 DSPs and microcontrollers using SPI, QSPI, and Microwire buses. In fact, they are the only serial voltage-output DACs that can be used directly with TI DSPs , providing a unique convenience for the design of TMS320 systems.

System designers can trade off speed versus power consumption in either 3- or 5-V systems by using a unique feature for programming settling time. A buffered reference input allows the devices to use all the reference voltages in the specified voltage range. A rail-to-rail buffered voltage output stage increases voltage swing and eliminates the need for an amplifier stage. When the DACs are not converting data, a power-down mode is available to save additional power.

There was a recent Bloomberg report which suggested there was a at least one analyst who still doesn't get what TI are doing in their business. Suggesting that there is no future in DSPs certainly ignores the total solutions that the Company is conjuring up; and in the process the analog and mixed-signal peripherals are of considerably more value than the DSP sales. These products are in that vein being uniquely tied to the TMS320: That is, if you want a voltage output serial interface DAC for your TMS320 you'd better design in one of these, because nothing else will work. At the same time that doesn't stop you using the same parts elsewhere.

While these are the fastest parts that I know of in this configuration, they are not the fastest in this family. Typical for these quads the 5614 has a 3 us settling time in the fast mode (with 9.6 mW power consumption) and 9 us settling in the slow mode with power dropping to 3.6 mW (power down is about 10 nA.) Settling in the single part is similar with the power cut about 60%. But TI's own TLV5613 is a 1 us settling part in fast and 3.5 us in slow, but it is a parallel interface part. Most of the other DACs in this family are not comparable because they are 5-V only. But if you read in the press release "With a one microsecond typical settling time" you were not seeing things. Let's assume that it was a typo.

The demand for these products will be extremely high and the prices are probably realistic (you might not like them, but be pragmatic in terms of 'how else do I do this, at what cost?' The two quads are in 16-pin SOIC or TSSOP, while the single (5616) is in an 8-pin SOIC or TSSOP. The TLV5604 10-bit quad sells for $4.90, the TLV5614 12-bit quad for $9.50, and the TLV5616 12-bit single for $3.15, all in 1000-piece lots.