This just doesn't make sense. Why use ten percent of your $500 CPU to perform
a task which can just as easily be handled by a DSP or other embedded logic
worth $2?
For every task which is offloaded from the CPU to inexpensive dedicated
hardware, you have that much CPU left to perform useful work. For instance,
a Pentium II at 350MHz can probably decode an MPEG2 video stream in real-time,
but not have enough CPU cycles left over to do much in the way of useful work.
So you'd have to buy a 450MHz (or faster) CPU to be able to other things while
this video stream played, and having to buy the leading edge will cost you
dear. Instead, a $20 dedicated MPEG2 decoder chip can free up even more
CPU cycles, and cost significantly less in the process.
Charles Cazabon
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