For decades, many embedded designs used separate processors for handling the signal and control processing. Part of the reason for using separate and different types of processors is that the data and processing characteristics of control and signal processing are different enough to warrant different implementations. Control processing is characterized by frequent context switches as the control software must handle different asynchronous events so as to minimize the latency between when an event occurs and when the controller responds to that event. Microcontroller architectures that specialize in control processing usually include circuitry that enables them to detect and respond to interrupts quickly and deterministically.

In contrast, signal processing is characterized by very few context switches. Rather, signal processing exhibits relatively repetitive and predictable processing – however, the amount of computing that must be performed at each data point is usually substantial and overloads traditional microcontroller architectures. Signal processing architectures trade-off efficient context switching for efficient loop processing via special loop instructions and data handling via additional buses.

Because controllers and signal processors differ so much at the architectural level, the skills required to program them are different and the tools to develop with them are different. Managing two different processors simplifies partitioning the processing tasks, but it also increases the complexity of integrating between the two processing systems for the design team.

Within the last decade, a hybrid processing architecture emerged that combined control and signal processing into a single instruction stream. The most recently used label for such processors is digital signal controllers (DSC) which acknowledges its combined architectural trade-offs. DSCs are able to perform context switching like a microcontroller, but they are also able to process light weight signal processing tasks better than a microcontroller. However, they are not capable of handling heavy-lifting signal processing as well as dedicated signal processing architectures.

Hybrid architectures and the development tools to work with them have matured. Hybrid architectures allow a development team to use the same processor architecture throughout each part of the design which supports using the same instruction set and same development tools. However, the interface between the controller and signal processing tasks is limited to the architectural trade-offs that the processor architect made. If the trade-offs that were made match the needs for the project it is being used in, then all is well, but any mismatch will affect the development team’s implementation options.

When is using the single instruction stream benefit of a DSC or hybrid architecture better than using the multiple instruction stream approach of multiple and different types of processors in a design? Have you made this trade-off decision with any of your designs? When did you choose one over the other and why?