Re: OT: Re: porting linux to DSP
Marc Mutz (Marc@Mutz.com)
Wed, 28 Jul 1999 19:51:00 +0200
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
PGP-keyID's: 0xd46ce9ab (RSA), 0x7ae55b9e (DSS/DH)
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