Processors

Massively Parallel Processors for DSP, Part 1

In the last few years a number of start-up companies have announced massively parallel processors for embedded DSP applications.  With their arrays of processing elements, these processors target high-end digital video, software-defined radio and other computationally demanding applications for which traditional DSP processors lack sufficient horsepower and ASICs are too inflexible or too costly to design. In some cases, massively parallel architectures are employed to reduce power Read more...

MIPS Announces High-Performance Superscalar Core

MIPS has introduced the MIPS 74K, a new, high-performance synthesizable general-purpose microprocessor core. The 74K targets demanding multimedia and networking applications, such as H.264 and WiMaX, and according to MIPS, the core has already been shipped to initial licensees. The 74K is a 32-bit, dual-issue, asymmetric superscalar architecture that supports out-of-order instruction execution and uses a 17-stage pipeline. According to MIPS, the 74K can achieve speeds of up to 1 GHz when Read more...

Tips and Tricks for Debugging Audio

Introduction Are you designing a system that involves audio? Maybe an audio product or a product with an audio subsystem? Here are some tips and tricks that may help you. Designing audio systems and debugging audio presents some interesting challenges.  Sound is ruthlessly real-time; the speaker cone will keep moving, even if your prototype isn’t able to keep up with the flow of output samples required.  The same is true of a microphone:  the microphone diaphragm keeps moving and must be Read more...

ARM’s Cortex-A8 Armed for DSP, Multimedia

BDTI has released independent benchmark results  for the Cortex-A8, ARM’s highest-performance processor core, on the BDTI DSP Kernel Benchmarks™ and the BDTI Video Encoder and Decoder Benchmarks™. The results indicate that the Cortex-A8 is significantly faster than its predecessor, the ARM1176, giving it considerable horsepower for its targeted applications. Initially, the Cortex-A8 is being used in chips for high-performance cellular handsets; it also targets set-top boxes, printers, and Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—As Signal Processing Workloads Evolve, So Must Processors

Historically, DSP processors have been the default choice for signal processing applications because they could efficiently process classical signal processing functions like FIR filters and FFTs. But those capabilities aren’t enough any more. Signal processing applications still include demanding real-time filtering and frequency transforms, but these algorithms are increasingly combined with processing that is fundamentally different. For example, algebraic signal processing computations Read more...

A Survey of Mainstream DSP Processors

The DSP processor landscape is changing in many ways.  For example, in years past, vendors offered numerous “general-purpose” DSPs intended to serve a wide range of applications.  Today, many DSP families are focused on certain types of digital signal processing applications, such as control loops or audio equipment.  In this article, we’ll take a look at the current mainstream choices in DSP processors, and describe their key target applications and competitors. ADI, Freescale, and TI Read more...

CEVA Unveils “Lite” Mobile Multimedia Platform

In March CEVA unveiled “Mobile-Media-Lite” (MMLite), a family of multimedia processing solutions comprising licensable silicon IP and software. The family is aimed at low-end multimedia-enabled devices such as mobile TV players, portable multimedia players, and multimedia phones. CEVA also announced the first family member, the MM2200, a single-processor multimedia engine. CEVA’s intent is to provide highly integrated, application-optimized solutions; the company states that the MM2200 is Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Efficiency Comes in Many Flavors

It’s generally accepted that, for processing engines, there is a trade-off between efficiency and generality.  The more a chip is geared towards a specific application, the more efficient it’s likely to be (in terms of speed, energy consumption, and cost).  On one end of the spectrum you have traditional FPGAs, which are completely general-purpose, and on the other are fixed-function chips, which are completely application specific. In between these extremes lie various types of processors, Read more...

Case Study: Multi-Tiered Software Optimization

While nearly all signal processing applications require some degree of software optimization, some applications require a sophisticated, multi-tiered optimization approach in order to meet their performance goals. To obtain the most efficient code, DSP software must be optimized at four distinct levels. First, the software architecture and data flow must be designed to take maximum advantage of the processor’s resources. Second, the appropriate data types must be selected—too big and you’re Read more...

Can ARM11 Handle DSP?

ARM’s general-purpose processor cores have long been used alongside DSP processors in products like cell phones, where the ARM core typically handles tasks like packet processing, user interface, and overall control, and the DSP handles the computationally demanding signal processing.  But as ARM has gradually upgraded its cores with DSP-oriented features, more chip and system designers are considering whether to use an ARM core as a DSP engine. The question is, how much signal processing Read more...