With input signals near the upper audio frequencies, data must be acquired at up to 48 kHz to
satisfy the Nyquist criterion. At this rate, ADCs produce one point every 20.83 µsec, or 1,024
points every 21.3 msec. For real-time processing of acoustic signals, execution of analysis
algorithms must satisfy this constraint. Not much work can be done by a general-purpose
microprocessor in only 20.83 µsec. However, a DSP chip with a 60-nsec instruction cycle, such
as the TI TMS320C30, can execute almost 350 instructions in that amount of time.