Re: difference btw H/W & S/W implementations

From: Douglas A. Gwyn (DAGwyn_at_null.net)
Date: 02/27/04 

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 19:49:47 GMT

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote:
> Software implementations _can_ approach dedicated h/w solutions if the
> software is designed for the application. However, if you start looking
> at more general purpose software (which includes the popular operating
> systems), the issues of interrupt handling, multitasking, etc. are far
> from optimum for many DSP applications. Particularly if predictable
> response times are required, having a time critical process stuck
> waiting for another slower process just won't do.

Essentially all embedded systems software is either a single
dedicated application, so none of that is relevant, or it uses
a "real-time operating system", which always has bounded response,
priority queueing, etc.