[vorbis-dev] How many MIPS for Vorbis Decoder?

John Ripley
Fri, 19 Mar 2004 09:03:35 -0000

> From: Jens Prüfer [mailto:jens.pruefer@gmx.de]
> Sent: 19 March 2004 15:55
> To: vorbis-dev@xiph.org
> Subject: [vorbis-dev] How many MIPS for Vorbis Decoder?
>
> Hello,
>
> I may be stupid, but I cannot find any data on how
> "expensive" the Vorbis
> Decoder is. Looking for an embedded solution I am interested
> in how many
> "MIPS" you need to decode a MONO audio stream at reasonable
> quality (44 kHz, approx. 100 kbps?)
>
> Can it be done in a microcontroller, or do I need
> ultra-expensive DSPs to do it?

Depends what you define as a "microcontroller" and "DSP" :)
There's a lot of
people calling quite powerful CPUs "microcontrollers" these days just
because they have tons of GPIOs, or "DSPs" just because they have a
fast
multiplier...

Most of the ARM based embedded platforms out there will manage
"normal"
quality Vorbis streams. Anything from a 74MHz ARM7TDMI with cache, MMU and
SDRAM will do the job using Tremor with plenty of MIPS to spare. You'll only
run into trouble if you have a platform slower than that, or lacking a
"flat" cached memory model.

What's this intended for anyway - low power, small form factor, or low cost?
If it's just a hobby thing, grab an XScale development board. Otherwise,
some ARM based CPU with your particular power/form/cost requirement will
most likely do the job.