Embedded digital signal processors for baseband communication systems have stringent design constraints including high computational bandwidth, low power consumption, and low interrupt latency. Furthermore, these processors should be compiler-friendly, so that code for them can quickly be developed in a high-level language. This paper presents the design of a highperformance, low-power digital signal processor for baseband communication systems. The processor uses token triggered threading, SIMD vector processing, and powerful compound instructions to provide real-time baseband processing capabilities with very low power consumption. Using a super-computer class vectorizing compiler, the processor achieves real-time performance on a 2Mbps WCDMA transmission system.
Michael J. Schulte, C. John Glossner, Suman Mamidi