Motorola 56k DSP

The Motorola DSP56000 (more commonly called the Motorola 56k) is a family of DSP chips that uses 24-bit, fixed-point processing and includes two 24-bit registers, which can also be accessed as a single 48-bit register. Since its introduction in 1986, the Motorola 56k DSP has been extremely important to the development of pro audio instruments and hardware. The chips found a home in synthesizers and pro audio devices such as A/D to D/A converters and Pro Tools TDM systems due to the fact that their 24-bit addressing system resulted in a huge dynamic range of 144 dB. They became ubiquitous in early virtual-analog synthesizers in the ’90s. More recently, advanced DSP chips with 32-bit, floating-point registers have taken over, but there are still synthesizers and effects processors designed around the Motorola DSP 56k chip.