Exploration of Efficient Many-Core Processor for Dual-Polarization and Sympathetic Plucked String Model

Abstract

Despite the fact that physics-based sound synthesis is becoming more and more efficient in rich and natural high-quality sound synthesis, its high computational complexity limits its use in portable devices. This constraint motivated research on parallel processing architectures that support the physics-based sound synthesis of musical instruments. Since no general consensus has been reached which grain sizes of many-core processors and memories provide the most efficient operation for sound synthesis, this paper explores a many-core processor for varying its PE configurations. To find the optimal PE configuration, each PE configuration is evaluated in terms of execution time, system power, and area. Experimental results indicate that the most efficient operation in order to synthesize 44,100 six-note polyphonic acoustic guitar sound sampled at 44.1 kHz is achieved as the number of PEs equals to 192. Likewise, all PE configurations used in this study are satisfied with the system requirements to implement sound synthesis on a portable device.