SAWs enable the advent of the signal microprocessor development station

The Signal MicroProcessor (SMP) is a software-controlled programmable processor IC chip for video and RF signals. The SMP has been developed to bring the power of programmable mathematical processing to high-speed analog electronic equipment in cases where the cost and power requirements of the high-speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and ultra-high-speed digital processing present a problem. It is enabled by a technology called acoustic charge transport, which is used to provide the buffer memory for analog signals in a platform that can also implement the high-speed arithmetic operations. The SMP performs the function of an ADC, a digital signal processor with 128 multipliers, 128 adders, control circuitry, and a digital-to-analog converter all working with a 360 megasample/s throughput rate.<>