steve wrote:
> I'm referring to the Ultra Low Power DSP's customized for hearing aids
> and headsets, they are very small, very fast processors and use very
> little power (0.05mW/MIPS) and run on 1.2 volts, quite impressive

Not really that impressive. Remember they are talking about 0.05mW/MIP 
for the *core*. For a complete chip the picture would be rather 
different. The core is the least consuming part of many small MCUs and 
DSPs. You want flash? look at the leakage most people get with that? You 
want a speech bandwidth A/D and D/A on board? Look at the power they take.

Regards,
Steve

I'm referring to the Ultra Low Power DSP's customized for hearing aids
and headsets, they are very small, very fast processors and use very
little power (0.05mW/MIPS) and run on 1.2 volts, quite impressive

here is one
http://www.amis.com/products/dsp/belasigna_200.html

CoolFlux in another one, but they only license the cores

www.coolfluxdsp.com

I'm just becoming familar with these type of processors, although they
appear to have hardwired semi programmable filters (coprocessor), it
also seems to have a generic DSP,RAM, A/D, D/A etc, but not much
details on the site (no data sheets), is there something about these
units that doesn't allow them to be used for general purpose DSP
(assuming you can live with the A/D specs)? Or do they cost $200/each
and that partially explains why hearing aids are $3000? :)