A review of VLSI technologies in digital signal processing

The authors discuss current VLSI technologies that are in use for implementing digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms at the integrated circuit level. The authors start by introducing the technologies, including features and properties associated with high-performance implementation of DSP systems. This is followed by a technology and architectural view of current commercial DSP chips, including both general-purpose programmable devices and some special-purpose devices. It is shown that not only advanced technology can be used to improve the performance of VLSI processors but that special parallel architectures can introduce much higher levels of performance improvement. The authors conclude with a look at the new technology of integrating sensor devices with DSP processing architectures.<>