In this paper we focus on MPSoC architectures for human heart ECGreal-time monitoring and analysis. This is a very relevant bio-medicalapplication, with a huge potential market, hence it is an ideal targetfor an application-specific SoC implementation. We investigate asymmetric multi-processor architecture based on STMicroelectronicsVLIW DSPs that process in real-time 12-lead ECG signals. Thisarchitecture improves upon state-of-the-art SoC designs for ECGanalysis in its ability to analyze the full 12 leads in real-time, evenwith high sampling frequencies, and ability to detect heartmalfunction. We explore the design space by considering a number ofhardware and software architectural options.