The Motorola 96XXX (aka 96000, 96K) is a family of digital signal processor (DSP) chips produced by Motorola. They are based on the earlier Motorola 56000 and remain software compatible with them, but have been updated to a full single-precision (32-bit) floating point implementation that is compliant with the IEEE 754-1985 standard.[1]
Many of the design features of the 96000 remain similar to the 56000. In architectures 96000, the stack area is allocated in a separate address space, which is called "Stack Memory Space",[2] distinct from the main memory address space.[3] The stack, which is used when subroutine calls and "long interrupt"s, is fifteen in depth.[3] While the 56000 is equipped with two 56-bit accumulators, each of which can be partitioned into one 8-bit extension register and two 24-bit registers,[4] the 96000 is equipped with ten 96-bit registers, each of which can be partitioned into three 32-bit sub-registers.[5]
Unlike the 56K, the 96000 "family" consisted of a single model, the 96002. It was nowhere near as successful as the 56K, and was only produced for a short period of time. Today its role is filled by products based on the so-called Motorola StarCore.
The 96000 offers an Assembler and an Instruction set simulator as part of its development tool.[6][7]