TMS320

Rob,
Great question! In the technical sense the F28069(and all 28 class devices) are a DSP since the C28x core has a hardware MAC(Multiply and Accumulate).

That distinction between a classical MCU and a DSP has been blurred a lot over the past decade or so with introductions of math coprocessors/floating point units/etc into traditional micro architectures like ARM and the like.

While the C28x core is a DSP at its roots it(the core itself) was designed for control systems in terms of its fast interrupt handling(compared to a more traditional DSP/processor with very deep pipelines) as well as its integration of control peripherals, converters, memory, and comm ports. The 2806x also has a control law accelerator(CLA) designed to independently do the control loop while the main core handles the system tasks.

Let me know if you have anymore questions along these lines, or otherwise about our products.