You are asked to select a processor for the next video processor box. The box will have a dedicated DSP chip, so the video processing is taken care of. You still have to select a processor for other control functions, software layers, running a JVM and other applications. Which processor architecture to choose?
Let’s start with a look at some of the RISC processor architectures :
ARM
ARM stands for Advanced Risc Machines Ltd. ARM cores are one of the most licensed and thus used in a wide variety of devices all across the world. This is the preferred processor for portable devices due to its low power consumption.
PowerPC
MIPS
MIPS is considered to be the most simple and elegant RISC architectures. If you were to learn a RISC architecture for first time in detail, including the instruction set, MIPS would be a definite choice. It is exactly for the same reason that MIPS is very popular academically; most courses on a RISC architecture is based on MIPS. Interestingly, MIPS by itself originated in an academic project.
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