A LPC ARM can do the job quite well here. It can
process that amount of data rather quickly. You may
want to look into it. The problem with ARM is that the
timing for each instruction is rather dubious .....
Not as easy as with PIC.


> 
> If the data rate is high (say 20ksps from 16bit SAR
> ADC,
> the data rate will be 320k bps). Perhaps a small MCU
> will not be able to
> do the job.
> 
  There is one from Xilinx that would fit your
http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/cplds/coolrunner_series/coolrunner_ii_cplds/index.htm
http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/cplds/coolrunner_series/coolrunner_ii_cplds/advantages/chip_scale_package_solutions.htm

  But there are a few macro blocks in it..... You may
have to go for Spartan III for your application.

> How small this CPLD can be? Any recommendations?
> 
> I understand that the high data rate will also
> require a big MCU or
> DSP or FPGA to process the data if I want to do some
> digital filtering.
> But that is the next question...
> -- 
  I can only think of a CPLD / FPGA unless you need a
lot of specialize i/o pins to start with in your
application. The learning curving is rather high... 

john

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