Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:51:00 +0200 | From | Marc Mutz <> | Subject | Re: OT: Re: porting linux to DSP |
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Bjorn Wesen wrote: > <snip> > > The practical problem of this is two-fold though: first, it's hard to > find a dsp that can match the cpu in the pc (price/performance is > irrelevant here cos you already have the main cpu) and second even if you > could, mainstream cpu design advances much faster than dsp design so you'd > be out of business in 3 months. Just think about how fast the mainstream > cpu speeds increase, while DSP's come with one generation a year or every > odd year. > It doesn't have to match the main CPU. There are some algorithms that are lightning fast on DSP's and creep like snails even on the K7. Audio FX processing comes to mind, mp3 (de)compression, too. You don't want to use a DSP for word processing, you want to use it for those special tasks where it blows away any {R,C}ISC processor by several orders of magnitude*. Also you have the added bonus of parallel processing.
On the subject of innovation cycles, I'd like to simply say: Look what mainstream's done to graphic accelerators.
Marc
* c't magazine project: MP3 decoder. Uses DSP (10MHz, iirc). You want to tell me that a 10Mhz K7 can do this? -- Marc Mutz <Marc@Mutz.com> http://marc.mutz.com/ University of Bielefeld, Dep. of Mathematics / Dep. of Physics
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