Analog Devices has made 23 of its internally developed codecs available as free downloads from its website. The software modules, or "ingredients" as ADI likes to call them, run on Blackfin or SHARC processors, and cover pretty much all the standard audio/video/image codecs*, as well as five Dolby codecs. Developers won't get their hands on source code, only object code, but will get C source code for an interface routine that calls the codecs.

The move echoes TI's decision to write its own codecs and provide them through an "Authorized Software Provider" network. Unlike ADI, TI charges for its codecs—but in all fairness to TI, that money buys you a considerable amount of support. Interestingly, TI recently began providing "free" codecs with its DM355 DaVinci chips. (The codecs are "free" in the sense that their cost is included in the cost of the chip.) TI also provides free evaluation versions of its codecs for all of its DaVinci chips.

It appears that like TI, ADI is moving away from selling stand-alone DSPs and moving towards selling hardware/software "solutions." This move makes a lot of sense, particularly for DSPs that target consumer electronics. The consumer electronics market presents all kinds of competitors, including ASSPs and general purpose processors. These competitors are often perceived as being easier to use and (at least in the case of ASSPs) as providing a more complete solution. By wrapping the DSP and the codecs together, DSP vendors can negate these advantages and play to their strengths—namely, that they provide a programmable platform and good DSP tools. (Here's a good article on the showdown between DSPs and other solutions.) Here's hoping that other vendors will follow the example set by ADI and TI.

*Thankfully, the churn of new codecs appears to be slowing down. In video, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are still going strong and H.264 has effectively beat Microsoft's VC-1. And while we've seen scores of new audio codecs in recent years, mp3 and AAC are the only must-haves for most consumer devices.

Comments? Mail me at kentonwilliston@yahoo.com

Update—An alert reader writes:

"...most of the codecs require a license agreement with ADI to be signed before the code can be released. This is not an automated process. It requires contacting an ADI representative and going through a manual signature process in order to protect Analog Devices Intellectual Property. After that, ADI will provide the customer with the location from which to download the codecs."

Thanks for the tip!