Host Signal Processing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Host Signal Processing (HSP) is a term used in computing to describe hardware such as a modem or printer which is emulated (to various degrees) in software. Intel uses the term Native Signal Processing (NSP). HSP replaces dedicated DSP or ASIC hardware by using the general purpose CPU of the host computer.

Modems using HSP are known as winmodems (a term trademarked by 3COM / USRobotics, but genericized) or softmodems. Printers using HSP are known as GDI printers (after the MS Windows GDI software interface), winprinters (named after winmodems) or softprinters.

The Apple II floppy drive used the host CPU to process drive control signals, instead of a microcontroller. This instance of HSP predates the usage of the terms HSP and NSP.