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During lecture CPU (Central Processing Unit), ASIP (Application-Specific Instruction set Processor) and DSP (Digital Signal Processor) were briefly mentioned.

Unfortunately the main differences (and use cases) weren't discussed.

In my understanding CPUs are the general purpose work horses. They are flexible, but not as efficient to specific tasks. DSPs are basically stripped down CPUs, which are really efficient at digital signalling applications. ASIPs have an custom instruction set for specific use cases.

Is this understanding correct? Could you elaborate further the differences and use cases of those devices? Is a DSP an ASIP?

Niklas
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  • CPU is general purpose. DSP is dedicated to signal processing. ASIP can be application specific like a processor inside a digital camera. – Mitu Raj Nov 28 '19 at 11:04
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    Possible duplicate of [What can the dsPIC do which the humble PIC microcontroller cannot do?](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/95385/what-can-the-dspic-do-which-the-humble-pic-microcontroller-cannot-do) – pjc50 Nov 28 '19 at 13:21

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"ASIP" is not a term the industry bothers to use. The similar-sounding "ASIC" (application specific integrated circuit) basically means any piece of specialized IC design that isn't a general purpose processor.

A DSP is not "stripped down", it is optimized for digital signal processing tasks, which usually means convolution, fast fourier transform, discrete cosine transform, filtering, and so on.

This usually means having the ability to do a block of multiplications and additions in one instruction.

DSPs are generally more powerful than microcontrollers but lack some of the features required for multi-user operating systems, such as virtual memory.

pjc50
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