Semiconductor company Analog Devices Inc. Monday debuted a new line of digital signal processors that it says will drive high-speed video for a new generation of Internet appliances.

The 16-bit chips, called Blackfin, take advantage of an architecture developed jointly with Intel to provide four times the processing power of currently available digital signal processors, according to the company. That extra power is necessary to run video-intensive Internet devices such as video phones, gaming consoles, Web terminals, and handhelds.

The first chip in the line, the ADSP-21535, runs at 300 MHz, nearly twice the clock speed of Analog Devices' current models, and will ship to manufacturers in the first quarter of 2002. The company says future versions will run as fast as 1 GHz.

Analog Devices also unveiled a companion power-management chip that varies the core voltage of Blackfin as needed for each computing task, cutting its power usage by 60% or more. "It's a very big plus," says Will Strauss, a Forward Concepts analyst. "There's a thirst for more and more power." As digital signal processor chips begin to be used in clusters such as cellular switching systems, Strauss says, "you really see it in the electric bill."