RISC and DSP Cores

As noted in the previous chapter, most video compression ICs utilize either a RISC or a DSP core as their central controller and processing unit. By RISC or DSP core we imply a standard programmable processor, without the I/O pads, buffers, and associated circuitry. These parts are replaced by custom circuits that interface to the rest of the architecture. The main goal in using a processing core is to take advantage of existing hardware and software resources (such as arithmetic processing units, memory, operating system support, and language compilers) and to minimize the design time of a more complex and dedicated IC. In this chapter we describe the basic architectures of a RISC core and a DSP core and some of their similarities and differences.