Extended Information

Digital signal processing refers to the use of computers or specialized processing equipment to collect, transform, filter, estimate, enhance, compress, identify, and process signals in digital form to achieve a desired result. The term DSP can refer both to the process of digital signal processing and to the digital signal processor, which is a type of processor designed for performing these operations efficiently. In a broader sense, DSPs, microprocessors, and microcontrollers are all types of processors. Although a DSP shares some similarities with a CPU, it is optimized specifically for digital signal processing tasks. Unlike most general-purpose CPUs, which use the von Neumann architecture, a DSP typically employs the Harvard architecture, which has separate memory spaces for instructions and data, allowing for faster parallel processing. Texas Instruments produces some of the most influential DSP chips available today.