A low-power heterogeneous multiprocessor architecture for audio signal processing

This paper describes a low-power programmable DSP architecture that targets audio signal processing. The architecture can be characterized as a heterogeneous multiprocessor consisting of small instruction set processors called mini-cores as well as standard DSP and CPU cores that communicate using message passing. The minicores are tailored for different classes of filtering algorithms (FIR, IIR, N-LMS etc.), and in a typical system the communication among processors occur at the sampling rate only. The mini-cores are intended as soft-macros to be used in the implementation of system-on-chip solutions using a synthesis-based design flow targeting a standard-cell implementation. They are parameterized in word-size, memory-size, etc. and can be instantiated according to the needs of the application. To give an impression of the size of a mini-core we mention that one of the FIR mini-cores in a prototype design has 16 instructions, a 32-word x 16-bit program memory, a 64-word x 16-bit data memory and a 25-word x 16-bit coefficient memory. Results obtained from the design of a prototype chip containing mini-cores for a hearing aid application, demonstrate a power consumption that is only 1.5 - 1.6 times larger than a hardwired ASIC and more than 6 - 21 times lower than current state of the art low-power DSP processors. This is due to: ( 1) the small size of the processors and ( 2) a smaller instruction count for a given task.