Texas Instruments has released a new microprocessor designed to be a workhorse for any number of medical diagnostic devices needing an embedded processor. What makes the new MSP430 interesting to the medical device community is its integrated analog signal filtering, digital conversion, and processing functions in addition to a complete digital signal processing path. What this means is that a designer can input analog signals from sensors like pulse oximeters, BP meters, and many other diagnostic characteristics, and without any additional microprocessors develop a device ready to manufacture. Since the microprocessor features everything from input to a display graphic controller, it can potentially simplify the development of new devices, and make the existing ones even smaller.
