A few weeks ago I participated in a panel discussion on benchmarking. The theme of the panel was how to benchmark multi-threaded and multi-core processors. In my view, this theme highlights a key problem with many benchmark approaches: too many benchmarks are designed to exercise hardware features, rather than to provide information that system developers need.

Alan Kamas contributed to this article.

System developers are obtaining more and more of their signal processing software from outside sources, making off-the-shelf software building blocks a vitally important element of the software development process. Figure 1 summarizes the types of software building blocks available today for signal processing applications.

Developing a signal processing-based system—like a cell phone or media player—can be a lot of work. Just how much work is a function of many factors, including the complexity of the application, the complexity of the hardware, and, increasingly, the quality of the development tools.

Last week TI introduced the TMS320C6455, the first general-purpose DSP to use TI's new ‘C64x+ core. (The previously announced TCI6482 also uses the new core, but this part is available only to select customers. See the February 2005 edition of Inside DSP for details.) TI also revealed the details of the 'C64x+ architecture.

System developers often rely on processor benchmarks to gauge system performance. However, the processor is just one of many components that determines overall performance. Fully understanding system performance requires careful analysis of many other elements, such as code-generation tools and third-party software libraries.