Universal versus dedicated microprocessors

Abstract

Although microprocessor CPUs are becoming increasingly powerful, it appears that raw speed and greater word length may not solve all of the microprocessor problems .... Particularly, the ominous software burden makes that direction increasingly less attractive .... One way of relieving that situation appears to be the development of a number of dedicated processors suited to a particular task or class of tasks .... However, that causes loss of universality ....The pros and cons of both approaches will be discussed.