A custom DSP chip to implement a robot motion controller

The authors discuss the issues related to implementing an adaptive control algorithm for robots. The requirements of this application lead to different architectural choices than what is typically done in general-purpose DSPs (digital signal processors). Based on this analysis, they have designed a dedicated chip whose important features are efficient implementation of control flow operations such as branches, loops, etc., and a practical strategy for testability. The layout generation of the custom circuit is facilitated by integrating a structural description of the processor inside a silicon compiler environment. With this scheme, customized versions of processor can be quickly generated for different applications