ABSTRACT
Digital signal processing (DSP) applications on computers have typically used separate DSP chips for each task. For example, one DSP chip is used for processing each audio channel (two chips for stereo); a separate DSP chip is used for modem processing, and another for telephony. In systems already using a general-purpose processor, the DSP chips represent additional hardware resources. Native signal processing is DSP performed in the microprocessor itself, with the addition of general-purpose multimedia instructions. Multimedia instructions extend native signal processing to video, graphics, and image processing, as well as the more common audio processing needed in speech, music, modem, and telephony applications. In this study, we describe the multimedia instructions that have been added to current microprocessor instruction set architectures (ISAs) for native signal processing or, more generally, for multimedia processing.
