coprocessor in microcontroller

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SukhdeepMankoo
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coprocessor in microcontroller

Post by SukhdeepMankoo » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:54 am

Hi,
Why need to to include coprocessor in microcontroller as its ALU can do all the things.

what will be the benefit of coprocessor?

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Sukhdeep Singh
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Neo
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Re: coprocessor in microcontroller

Post by Neo » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:41 pm

I'm not 100% sure that you are referring dual-processors chips that usually comes with an ARM and Ti series processor or processors that has specialised mini processors.

I will answer the question by thinking 2nd possibility. I'll get an example. There are some processors (especially Digital Media DSPs) that comes with a Video & Imaging Co-Processor (VICP). This co-processor has some important functions related to video/image processing. You can use this processor to apply the function (say median filter) while the main processor does encoding. This is just an example. The main use is, you can use the main processor on other tasks while the co-processor completes some operations.

It's all depending on how complicated your application is. If everything can be processed within the set time frame, you might not need to use the co-processors. However, when the main CPU is unable to process the required task within the stipulated time, then you will have to move some parts to co-processor which is beneficial to improve overall performance.
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