This paper presents an investigation into the real time performance of homogeneous and heterogeneous parallel architectures in signal processing and control applications. Several algorithms of regular and irregular nature are considered. These are implemented on a number of uni- processor and multi-processor parallel architectures. Hardware and software resources, capabilities of the architectures and characteristics of the algorithms are considered for suitable matching between the algorithms and the architectures. The partitioning and mapping of the algorithms on the architectures and multi-processor communication techniques are investigated. Finally, a comparison of the results of implementations is made to establish merits of design an...