Title :
The advent of the signal microprocessor
Author :
Hunsinger, Bill J.
Author_Institution :
Electronic Decisions Inc., Urbana, IL, USA
Abstract :
A software-controlled processor for analog signals, called the signal microprocessor (SMP), is described. The SMP is enabled by the high-speed buffer memory technology of acoustic charge transport (ACT) which stores samples of wideband signals as quantities of charge. The signal samples are processed in a massively parallel architecture which uses ultrasound to transport the samples from one processor to the next. In this high-speed computational engine, digitally programmable attenuators serve as multipliers and a summing bus is used as an accumulator. This architecture has demonstrated multiply-and-accumulate rates in excess of 45 billion operations per second. A digitally programmable 128-tap finite impulse response filter is described. This device may be used in each of the basic signal-processing functions of signal generation, extraction, modification, and characterization. Some SMP applications and examples are discussed
Keywords :
analogue computer circuits; parallel architectures; signal processing equipment; surface acoustic wave devices; ultrasonic devices; ACT; FIR filter; SAW filter; acoustic charge transport; analog signals; digitally programmable attenuators; finite impulse response filter; high-speed buffer memory technology; high-speed computational engine; massively parallel architecture; signal microprocessor; software-controlled processor; summing bus; wideband signals; Attenuators; Buffer storage; Computer architecture; Engines; Finite impulse response filter; Microprocessors; Parallel architectures; Signal processing; Ultrasonic imaging; Wideband;
Conference_Titel :
Circuits and Systems, 1990., IEEE International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
New Orleans, LA
DOI :
10.1109/ISCAS.1990.112665
