Earlier this month, MIPS announced a set of signal-processing-oriented instruction-set extensions for its RISC architecture. Though they improve the signal-processing capabilities of the MIPS architecture, they won't win MIPS any special attention — all the other major general-purpose processor architectures have been offering signal-processing-oriented features for years.
Indeed, it's becoming difficult to find a processor that doesn't include signal-processing hardware. Signal-processing features are available in everything from low-cost MCUs to high-end FPGAs.
Also, more processors incorporate not just traditional signal-processing features but also those designed to speed video processing. For example, processors ranging from ARM's ARM11 to Analog Devices' Blackfin include special instructions to accelerate motion estimation — critical to video compression.
A casual observer might wonder if this attention to signal processing is the latest fad in processor design. But processor vendors have good reasons to focus on signal processing. Signal-processing tasks make heavy demands on processors, and architectures that lack signal-processing features usually perform those tasks poorly.
In the past, signal-processing technology had focused heavily on communications applications. Today, however, signal processing is used for everything from enhancing digital TV displays to controlling electric power steering.
Because the end products that use signal processing are increasingly diverse, the range of processors offering signal-processing features is also increasingly diverse. After all, an application that can get by with a $2 DSP-enhanced MCU won't have much use for a $2,000 DSP-enhanced FPGA.
The proliferation of signal-processing features is good news for system designers, as it gives them more processor options than ever. But it is bad news for processor vendors, because simply adding signal-processing features no longer gives them a competitive edge.
Processor vendors must offer comprehensive solutions. For example, a processor vendor can gain an advantage with solutions that include application-specific peripherals, software modules and development boards. With so many processors targeting signal processing, only vendors that provide that kind of holistic solution will stand out.
Jeff Bier is the general manager of Berkeley Design Technology Inc. (www.BDTI.com), the DSP technology analysis and software development company. Kenton Williston of BDTI contributed to this column.
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