Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

Thanks for your interest in our DSP products. Here are Q&A frequently asked.

  • How much is the License fee?
    The license fee varies depending on what you really need. The basic license fee in a common case goes around $500K. However, Clarkspur accepts any reasonable proposal from start up companies. The payment term may be quite flexible.

  • Do you have a C compiler?
    An ANSI C based on Archelon's Generic C compiler is available from the company. You can consult with Archelon. However, we strongly recommend to use Assembler/Linker on our debugger for your DSP algorithm part.

  • What design rule did you use for the hand drawn version?
    We used our generic layout design rule with no special "circuit" design on it. Our generic rule matches with most of common 0.15u - 0.8u single poly/ double metal process. (Computerized metal oversizing may be needed for some processes.). The Gate level design and the HDL synthesizable design may need a speed verification procedure depending on your target library. We'll help you at additional cost.

  • Do you have any test chip available?
    We have several types of test chips. Customers can purchase them with no obligations. We recommend to purchase a EVA board to play with our DSP chip. The board comes with a set of S/W development tools(free version) and sample programs like G.726 ADPCM sound compression.

  • Do you have any application chip available?
    No. We do not sell any application chips we developed. As we are selling our DSP core license to many customers whose target applications often compete each other, we do not get into application chip business to stay in the licensor's position.

  • Do you have any application program available?
    Yes. We carry some of application programs like MP3, Ogg Vorbis audio applications. The programs are available only for licensees of our DSP licensees. Need separate license or purchasing arrangement.

  • How good is your DSP?
    We believe a handy, transparent, easy to understand DSP often contributes to cost sensitive applications, as long as it comes with a reasonable development environment. We carefully designed the specification of our DSP cores so that they would     need minimum human and hardware resource for importing, yet powerful enough for audio speed applications.

  • How do you support licensees?
    Original chip designers will be directly responsible to any hardware related questions. We are responsible to the core usage problems until you believe you no longer need our help. We are not only selling the logic, layout and HDL models, but we are selling the technology. So, we will support you until you believe you have understood the core design 100%.

Do you still need to contact us?

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