This paper presents the design and implementation of a low power digital signal processor (THUCIDSP-1) targeting at application for cochlear implants. Multi-level low power strategies including algorithm optimization, operand isolation, clock gating and memory partitioning are adopted in the processor design to reduce the power consumption. Experimental results show that the complexity of the Continuous Interleaved Sampling (CIS) algorithm is reduced by more than 80% and the power dissipation of the hardware alone is reduced by about 25% with the low power methods. The THUCIDSP-1 prototype, fabricated in 0.18-μm standard CMOS process, consumes only 1.91 mW when executing the CIS algorithm at 3 MHz.