Digital Signal Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
General-Purpose DSP Processors
Jarmo Takala
Abstract
Recently the border between DSP processors and general-purpose
processors has been diminishing as general-purpose processors have obtained
DSP features to support various multimedia applications. This chapter provides
a view to general-purpose DSP processors by considering the characteristics of
DSP algorithms and identifying important features in a processor architecture for
efficient DSP algorithm implementations. Fixed-point and floating-point data paths
are discussed. Memory architectures are considered from parallel access point of
view and address computations are shortly discussed.
1
Introduction
Recently the border between DSP processors and general-purpose processors has
been diminishing as general-purpose processors have obtained DSP features to
support various multimedia applications. On the other hand, DSP processors, which
used to be programmed with manual assembly, have nowadays incorporated features
from general-purpose computers to support software development on high-level
languages.
A DSP processor can be defined in a various ways and the simplest interpretation
states that a DSP processor is any microprocessor that processes signals represented
in digital form. As all programmable processors could be classified as DSP
processors according to this definition, we would need to refine the definition.
A more focused view on DSP processors can be obtained by considering the
characteristics of digital signal processing. As DSP is application of mathematical
algorithms to signals represented digitally and, on the other hand, DSP is applied in
