Teaching Hardware Design of Fixed-Point Digital Signal Processing Systems

Abstract

Signal processing theory and practice are enabling and driving forces behind multimedia devices, communications systems, and even such diverse fields as automotive and medical systems. Over 90 % of the signal processing systems on the market used fixed-point arithmetic because of the cost, power, and area savings that fixed-point systems provide. However, most colleges and universities do not teach or teach only a very little fixed-point signal processing. This issue is being addressed slowly around the country but now a new challenge or opportunity presents itself. As reconfigurable logic technology matures, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are increasingly used for signal processing systems. They have the advantage of tremendous throughput, great flexibility, and system integration. The challenge is that signal processing in FPGAs is a much less constrained problem than signal processing in special purpose microprocessors. The opportunity arises in that it is now possible to explore more options and, more especially, to take a more systems-level approach to signal processing systems. In short, designing a signal processing system using FPGAs provides opportunities to look at many system design issues and trade-offs in a classroom setting. We have developed a course to teach signal processing in FPGAs at Georgia Institute of Technology and in this paper we consider the challenges and methods of teaching fixedpoint system design in this course. We discuss the topics chosen and how they differ from traditional microprocessor-based courses. We also discuss how systems engineering concepts are woven into the course.