Before reading the text try to answer the following questions

1. Do all DSPs provide the same speed?

2. What company provides a multi-core DSPs family MSC 81xx?

3. What does Analog Devices produce?

4. Do most DSPs use fixed-point arithmetic?

5. What might product developers use to reduce the cost and complexity of software development in exchange for more expensive hardware?

2. Read the text and check your answers.

Modern signal processors yield greater performance. This is due in part to both technological and architectural advancements like lower design rules, fast-access two-level cache, (E)DMA circuit and a wider bus system. Of course, not all DSPs provide the same speed and many kinds of signal processors exist, each one of them being better suited for a specific task, ranging in price from about US$1.50 to US$300.

A Texas Instruments C6000 series DSP clocks at 1.2 GHz and implements separate instruction and data caches as well as an 8 MiB 2nd level cache, and its I/O speed is rapid thanks to its 64 EDMA channels. The top models are capable of as many as 8000 MIPS (million instructions per second), use VLIW (very long instruction word) encoding, perform eight operations per clock-cycle and are compatible with a broad range of external peripherals and various buses (PCI/serial/etc). TMS320C6474 chips each have three such DSPs, and the newest generation C6000 chips support floating point as well as fixed point processing.

Another player at the high-end signal processor manufacturer today is Freescale. The company provides a multi-core DSPs family MSC81xx. The MSC81xx is based on StarCore Architecture processors. The latest MSC8144 DSP combines four programmable SC3400 StarCore DSP cores. Each SC3400 StarCore DSP core runs at 1 GHz. The SC3400 performed higher than any other programmable DSP at 1 GHz on BDTIsimMark2000 results published by Berkeley Design Technology, Inc. (BDTI).

Another major signal processor manufacturer today is Analog Devices. The company provides a broad range of DSPs, but its main portfolio is multimedia processors, such as codecs, filters and digital-analog converters. Its SHARC-based processors range in performance from 66 MHz/198 MFLOPS (million floating-point operations per second) to 400 MHz/2400MFLOPS. Some models even support multiple multipliers and ALUs, SIMD instructions and audio processing-specific components and peripherals. Another product of the company is the Blackfin family of embedded digital signal processors, with models like the ADSP-BF531 to ADSP-BF536. These processors combine the features of a DSP with those of a general use processor. As a result, these processors can run simple operating systems like μCLinux, velOSity and Nucleus RTOS while operating relatively efficiently on real-time data.

Another player is NXP Semiconductors based on TriMedia VLIW technology, optimized for audio and video processing. In some products the DSP core is hidden as a fixed-function block into an SoC, but NXP also provides a range of flexible single core media processors, such as the with a complete software development kit and a library of codecs and filters. The TriMedia media processors support both fixed-point arithmetic as well as floating-point arithmetic, and have specific instructions to deal with complex filters and entropy coding.

Most DSPs use fixed-point arithmetic, because in real world signal processing the additional range provided by floating point is not needed, and there is a large speed benefit and cost benefit due to reduced hardware complexity. Floating point DSPs may be invaluable in applications where a wide dynamic range is required. Product developers might also use floating point DSPs to reduce the cost and complexity of software development in exchange for more expensive hardware, since it is generally easier to implement algorithms in floating point.

Generally, DSPs are dedicated integrated circuits, however DSP functionality can also be realized using Field Programmable Gate Array chips.

Embedded general-purpose RISC processors are becoming increasingly DSP like in functionality. For example, ARM Cortex-A8 has a 128-bit wide SIMD unit that can have impressive 16- and 8-bit performance for industry standard benchmarks. OMAP3 processors include a Cortex-A8, and optionally incorporate a C6000 DSP, so designs can choose the best approach: higher end DSP, or ARM-based "DSP lite".