The ADSP-21020: an IEEE floating point and fixed point DSP for HLL programming

Much has been written about the problems of programming DSPs in a high-level language (HLL) like C. In general, most users are not satisfied with the efficiency of the compilers available for DSPs. Yet, with DSP systems becoming larger and larger, there is increasing need for DSPs to be programmed in an HLL. Rather than focusing on C language efficiency alone, the authors looked at the DSP architectures and the C language itself. The results of efforts in this regard are discussed. The authors report on the DSP/C compiler and its implementation for the ADSP-21020. DSP/C is an HLL intended for DSP application and the ADSP-21020 is an IEEE single precision floating point and 32-bit fixed point DSP designed for HLL application