DSPs in the frame

There has, for a long time, been a direct association between processing power and the amount of cash which designers need to part with in order to take advantage of that power. But that link has, in the main, been broken and the dsp world is increasingly resembling any other sector of the electronics industry. Today, designers want as much processing power as they can get their hands on, but are looking to pay as little as possible. This trend has been in process for some time, but has become more obvious of late as the leading dsp manufacturers – such as Analog Devices and Texas Instruments – develop product lines targeted squarely at designers of consumer electronics devices. Where companies designing radars, to name just one application, were more concerned with how quickly data could be processed and displayed and price was not high on the list of priorities, those designing, to take another example, portable media players, are well aware the price tag on the High Street shelf is a major factor in product success.