Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries.

Their unparalleled portfolio of power management solutions, microprocessors, microcontrollers, sensors, radio frequency semiconductors, analog and mixed signal circuits and software technologies are embedded in products used around the world.

The DSP56858, 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 DSP56858 is well-suited for many applications because of its low cost, configuration flexibility, and compact program code. The DSP56858 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.