Intel i860 versus Digital Signal Processors (DSP)

Abstract The overall characteristics of Digital Signal Processors and RISC processors are described in this paper. The instructions of the i860 processor from Intel which are of special interest to digital signal processing algorithms is a major subject of this paper. The cost saving aspects of using the i860 processor in digital signal environments are described. The advantages of using the programming language Ada are described with the safety, maintenance and other requirements of digital signal processing in mind. The practical aspects and the main features of the Ada development tools are described. The main conclusion is that the i860 processor can replace some Digital Signal Processors, thus saving development costs.