A new 20 b digital signal processor is presented which is especially designed to provide a cost-effective solution for audio data reduction and corresponding channel decoding tasks. The Multipurpose Audio Signal Compander (MASC) combines the computing power of a digital signal processor, the sophisticated features of a single chip controller, and generous portions of RAM and ROM. The MASC is a pipelined reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC) machine with 25 ns cycle time; it is designed in 0.8 mu m CMOS technology. The MASC is not only applicable for data compression tasks but also for multimedia, high-definition television (HDTV) digital audio broadcasting (DAB), echo cancellers, and other sophisticated consumer audio tasks. The first applications will be a full ISO Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) audio decoder including Layer 3 and EUREKA 176 DAB channel and source decoder. >