Today's high-end DSP products demand both efficient execution of control code and high-performance execution of DSP algorithms. For example, VoIP applications require IP stack management, a classic RISC function, in addition to speech coding and echo cancellation. RISC-DSPs—new architectures, which add DSP capabilities to conventional RISC processors—have emerged as a solution for such applications. This class describes how powerful DSP features can be integrated into a RISC architecture to meet application requirements. The power of the RISC-DSP architecture is illustrated through the use of an FIR programming example, which will show how the FIR's performance is improved by the introduction of DSP extensions to the RISC ISA. Extensions to the RISC tool chain as well asthe problem of deterministic allocation of real-time will also beaddressed.