The recent evolution of digital technology has resulted in the design of digital processors with increasingly complex capabilities. The implementation of hardware/software co-design methodologies provides new opportunities for the development of low power, high speed DSPs and processor networks. Dedicated digital processors are digital processors with an application specific computational task. "Dedicated Digital Processors" presents an integrated and accessible approach to digital processor design principles, processes, and implementations based upon the author's considerable experience in teaching digital systems design and digital signal processing. Emphasis is placed on presentation of hardware/software co-design methods, with examples and illustrations provided throughout the text. System-on-a-chip and embedded systems are described and examples of high speed real-time processing are given. Coverage of standard and emerging DSP architectures enable the reader to make an informed selection when undertaking their own designs. This book: presents readers with the elementary building blocks for the design of digital hardware systems and processor networks; provides a unique evaluation of standard DSP architectures whilst providing up-to-date information on the latest architectures, including the TI 55x and TigerSharc chip families and the Virtex FPGA (field--programmable gate array); and, introduces the concepts and methodologies for describing and designing hardware. VHDL is presented and used to illustrate the design of a simple processor. A practical overview of hardware/software codesign with design techniques and considerations are illustrated with examples of real-world designs. It is useful as a fundamental reading for graduate and senior undergraduate students of computer and electronic engineering, and practicing engineers developing DSP applications.