Confusion understanding digital signal processor? I am reading wikipedia article about digital signal processor and as shown in end of attached snapshot
.&quot; Most general-purpose microprocessors can also execute digital signal processing algorithms successfully, but may not be able to keep up with such processing continuously in real-time&quot;
Please elaborate with example/application? What is meant by real-time here in context of dsp?
The staple processor instruction of specialized DSP processors is a multiply-accumulate instruction. The vector multiplication and summation are performed in a single command fetch, it's a sort of SIMD (but not exactly). Only advanced MCU's have this instruction in their command set. Hence the advantage of DSP processors over general-purpose MCU's w.r.t. ALU performance on typical signal-processing operations, even when comparable technological process are used in their manufacturing. The same for FPGA devices with internal DSP blocks. In short, less command fetch cycles, higher performance.