Preface for u of i dsp laboratory

This text builds on over fourteen years of DSP laboratory instruction and over ten years of collaborative development ofinstructional laboratory materials. The content has evolved in tandem with ECE 320: Digital Signal Processing Laboratory, asenior-level, two-credit-hour elective laboratory course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and to a largeextent reflects its goals and structure. The material is nonetheless well suited for a variety of course organizations,and earlier versions of the material have been used with success at the University of Washington and elsewhere.

This text could be effectively used with several types of course structures, including

• a semester-long project-oriented DSP laboratory,
• a quarter- or semester-long DSP laboratory structured around weekly laboratory exercises,
• a hands-on laboratory supplement as part of a signal processing theory course,
• a self-study course in DSP implementation.

A course emphasizing signal processing algorithms might forgo a major project and instead use the supplementary modules tocomplete a quarter or semester of weekly laboratory assignments. A one-hour hands-on laboratory supplement to a signal processinglecture course could stretch the first few units ( e.g. , through spectral analysis) over a semester, thereby reinforcing and enhancing students'understanding of the core signal processing theory and algorithms. Due to the self-paced, tutorial nature of thematerials, a student can independently learn the aspects of real-time DSP implementation that interest them; students in oursenior independent design course at the University of Illinois have successfully used the materials in this manner.

The laboratory materials and assignments reflect our belief that a thorough instruction in signal processing implementationrequires exposure to assembly-language programming of fixed-point DSP microprocessors, as this represents an importantcomponent of current and at least near-future industrial practice. Instructors with other goals or perspectives may findmost of the tutorial, design material, and assignments relevant even if they choose compiler-based or non-real-timeimplementation. Laboratories using different development systems or different DSP microprocessors will likely find almostall of the material well suited for their needs; only the hardware-specific language and instructions need be modified.Earlier versions of this material have been used with several different DSP microprocessors and development boards based onthe Motorola DSP56000 and the Texas Instruments TMS320 families.

Connexions is an ideal venue for this text for several reasons. DSP hardware and development tools are evolving very rapidly, soa textbook produced through conventional publishers is likely to be almost obsolete before it is printed. Every university has aunique set of equipment, curriculum, and students, necessitating site-specific specialization of laboratory instructionalmaterial; conventional publishing is unable to produce textbooks cost-effectively with the rapid turnaround and lowvolumes thus required. We have always made our materials open, available,and free to other institutions to use in their own laboratory course development, so the open-source spirit of the Connexionsproject reflects our own philosophy and should more easily enable others to build on our experience. Finally, thismaterial was created, modified, rewritten, and enhanced by a large and changing group of authors over a period of years inresponse to new ideas and evolving needs, goals, and equipment; its development thus embodies the Connexions philosophy.

The development of these materials would not have been possible without the active support and encouragement of many people andorganizations. First, we express our gratitude to the corporations, particularly Texas Instruments, Motorola, andHewlett-Packard/Agilent, whose generosity has equipped our instructional laboratory with state-of-the-art DSP developmentsystems and instruments; our laboratory course would not be possible without their support. It would also have beenimpossible without the active support of the departmental leadership and the staff of the Electrical and ComputerEngineering department, and particularly Dan Mast, for supporting, designing, equipping, and maintaining ourinstructional laboratory. We thank the Connexions team for their very substantial help in "connexifying" our materials,including conversion of the majority of the material into CNXML and MathML format; without their efforts, the text in this formwould not exist. Support from the National Science Foundation in recent years enables continuing development of the course inresponse to student and industry needs. Most importantly, we are grateful to the generations of teaching assistants andstudents who have taught and learned from these materials over the past decade or more; it is their hard work, creative input,and dynamic interaction that have yielded this result.