Texas Instruments TMS320 User Manual page 206

Comparing Pipes and Streams
6-4
Pipes
(PIP and HST)
Reader and writer can be any
thread type or host PC.
PIP functions are non-blocking.
Program must check to make sure
a buffer is available before reading
from or writing to the pipe.
Uses less memory and is generally
faster.
Each pipe owns its own buffers.
Pipes must be created statically in
the configuration.
No built-in support for stacking
devices.
Using the HST module with pipes is
an easy way to handle data transfer
between the host and target.
Streams
(SIO and DEV)
One end must be handled by a task (TSK)
using SIO calls. The other end must be
handled by an HWI using Dxx calls.
SIO_put, SIO_get, and SIO_reclaim are
blocking functions and causes a task to
wait until a buffer is available. (SIO_issue
is non-blocking.)
More flexible; generally simpler to use.
Buffers can be transferred from one stream
to another without copying. (In practice,
copying is usually necessary anyway
because the data is processed.)
Streams can be created either at run time
or statically in the configuration. Streams
can be opened by name.
Support is provided for stacking devices.
A number of device drivers are provided
with DSP/BIOS.