The design of application-specific processor for DSP applications is not only driven by low-cost requirements, but also needs to fulfil constraints in terms of short development time. MetaCore, a configurable and instruction-level extensible DSP core, can effectively satisfy these requirements by providing a high degree of customization to the given application. In this paper, we present architectural concept of MetaCore and the MetaCore development platform. And we also present the first-generation MetaCore product version, MDSP16, which is a 16-by-16 fixed-point DSP processor. MDSP1.6 was implemented using 0.6 /spl mu/m TLM CMOS technology and has 50 MIPS peak performance.

This paper describes the MetaCore system which is an ASIP (Application-Specific Instruction set Processor) development system targeted for DSP applications. The goal of MetaCore system is to offer an efficient design methodology meeting specifications given as a combination of performance, cost and design turnaround time.