The third generation of SHARC processors, which includes the ADSP-21375 and ADSP-21371, offers increased performance, audio and application-focused peripherals, and memory configurations capable of supporting surround-sound decoder algorithms. All devices are pin-compatible and completely code-compatible with other SHARC Processors such as the ADSP-21367 and ADSP-21369. These members of the SHARC Processor family are based on a single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) core, which supports both 32-bit fixed-point and 32-/40-bit floating-point arithmetic formats making them particularly suitable for high-performance audio applications.

The ADSP-21371 offers a high performance at a very low cost 266 MHz/1596 MFLOPs within the third generation SHARC Processor family. This level of performance makes the ADSP-21371 particularly well suited to address the increasing requirements of the professional and automotive audio market segments while maintaining a low cost. In addition to its higher core performance, the ADSP-21371 includes additional value-added peripherals such as an S/PDIF transmitter/receiver. The ADSP-21371 also provides a direct interface to synchronous SDRAMs with a 32-bit interface that operates at 133MHz.