Next-generation consumer audio application specific embedded processor

Abstract

For next-generation audio applications, the dominant trends are much higher sample rate, larger word length and more audio channels for playback audio data. Traditional DSPs or embedded processors are inefficient for such kinds of applications because of their non-specific or limited computing capabilities as well as the on-chip memory architectures. In this paper, an embedded audio processor aiming at next-generation audio applications has been proposed. The audio specific instruction set architecture is based on the analysis of the requirements for next-generation audio processing. Besides, a novel tightly coupled audio memory has been proposed to support extremely high audio data throughputs and flexible audio data transfers with main memories. To evaluate the performance of the proposed audio processor, a set of benchmarks have been used based on the analysis of next-generation audio applications. The implementation and evaluation results lead to the conclusion that the proposed audio processor is of outstanding efficiency and cost-effectiveness for next-generation audio applications.