A comparative study of the suitability of a custom computing machine and a VLIW DSP for use in 3G applications

As wireless communications advances, the complexity of waveform processing places an ever increasing demand on baseband processing resources. As this is a difficult problem for traditional processing solutions to address, many have looked to reconfigurable computing as a solution. For 3G systems, whose intense processing requirements exacerbate these problems, we have previously proposed in (S. Srikanteswara et al, Soft Radio Impl. for 3G and Future High Data Rate Syst., Globecom 2001) the use of custom computing machines (CCMs), also known as adaptive computing machines (ACMs). This paper introduces a method for measuring processor performance which is independent of chip architecture. This method is then used to perform a comparative analysis on the suitability of Virginia Tech's Stallion CCM and Texas, Instrument's TMS320C6201 processor for use in 3G applications.