Applications of a digital signal processor in test instruments

A second-generation single-chip digital signal processor, TriStar, the architecture of which has been tailored for the instrumentation environment, is described. The TriStar uses a RISC-style Harvard architecture, prefetched instructions, wide instruction word, two external data memories, and extensive parallelism to provide high performance and throughput in waveform processing. Although its architecture has been optimized for test instruments, the TriStar is also capable of performing general digital signal processing tasks with an unmatched speed. A discussion of typical applications is included, and an explanation is given of how the processor delivers very high throughput for these applications