The DSP56855, a member of the DSP56800E core-based family of Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs), combines the processing power of a DSP and the functionality of a microcontroller with a flexible set of peripherals on a single chip. An extremely cost-effective solution, the DSP56855 is well-suited for many applications because of its low cost, flexibility, and compact program code. The DSP56855 includes many peripherals especially useful for teledatacom devices; Internet appliances; portable devices; TAD; voice recognition; hands-free devices; and general purpose applications.

The DSP56800E core is based on a Harvard-style architecture consisting of three execution units which operate in parallel, allowing as many as six operations per instruction cycle. The microprocessor-style programming model and optimized instruction set allow straightforward generation of efficient, compact code for both DSP and MCU applications. The instruction set is also highly efficient for C compilers, enabling rapid development of optimized control applications.