Realtime spectrum analysis using a microprocessor peripheral

The realization of a fast-Fourier transform (FFT) processor for realtime spectrum analysis of voice-band signals using a single chip signal processing peripheral is described. The chip processes FFT algorithms to compute the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of an N-point sequence by decomposing the sequence into shorter sequence DFT´s. The chip is a 16 bit microcomputer with architecture and instruction set optimized for digital signal processing. It features a 12 × 12 bit parallel multiplier pipelined to operate in a single instruction cycle of 300nsec. Designed as a micro-processor peripheral it allows efficient partitioning of system tasks in performing a variety of signal processing functions.