Turn-key DSP applications

Abstract

DSP-The Way of the Future A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor which is optimized to process sampled signals such as modem signals and speech signals. See Fig. 1. The first commercially available DSP was introduced in the early 1980s. At the heart of this DSP and all subsequent DSPs is a multiply-accumulator (MAC). The MAC is usually designed to multiply two numbers and accumulate their product in a single machine cycle. This high-speed MAC feature allows fundamental signal processing operations such as convolution, Fourier transforms, and correlation to be executed very efficiently. The DSP allows an input sampled signal to be processed or transformed into an output signal in real time. The real-time condition is achieved when the continuous input signal produces a continuous output signal delayed by some acceptable amount of time. Clearly as the data rate of the signal increases or as the process block becomes more complex, faster DSPs and more efficient software are necessary to maintain the real-time condition. The signal processing block can be an operation as simple as a low-pass filter or as complex as a modem or speech recognizer. It is not difficult to see why the DSP will play a very important part in the future. Many experts believe that we are in an information age, analogous to the industrial age of the early 1800s. As mechanization was a key to the industrial age, telecommunication is the vital ingredient in our information age. The telecommunication market continues to grow at a tremendous rate in the latter part of this century. To keep up with the ever increasing telecommunication demand, engineers have developed digital communication techniques which allow more information to be sent in less time and with less bandwidth. This evolu-