[sdiy] AUDIO effects in the code domain/?

[lanterma at ece.gatech.edu]

On Mar 21, 2011, at 3:00 PM, Dan Snazelle wrote:

> Why are some processors called DSPs and others which can run dsp are just called pics?
> 
> Are they specifically made to easily run DSP code??

The distinction can be kind of fuzzy. Chips specifically called DSPs usually have some specific support for typical DSP-type operations: circular buffer addressing modes, slick DMA, hardware multipliers with saturating arithmetic, barrel shifters, etc., although more and more of this sort of thing is finding its way into more "generic" CPUs.

DSPs typically allow you to predict and control the timing of things more precisely than more generic CPUs.

- Aaron