DSP System

What you need is a DSP development board. They will usually contain all you need to get a project like this off the ground - the DSP chip, any required memory, a few ADC inputs and DAC outputs etc, many are targeted specifically for audio use. It's already done for you. TI have a complete range of them:

They aren't particularly cheap, but it can save you weeks of mucking around with hardware, when really a project like this is all about the software.

There is nothing really special about DSP's, they are essentially just a microprocessor with specilised hardware making them faster at math and signal processing functions than a regular microprocessor or microcontroller.

Dave.

I've looked at that but I can justify the expense. Its got, what, about

20-30$ worth of components and another 20-30$ for the pcb (if that) yet they want 400 for just a starter? If theres something I'm missing that makes it worth it then please let me know about it but it seems like its not worth it.

Jon

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You are paying for the convenience, it's called "starter" for reason, it gets you started with no with fuss and no wasted effort, productive from day one. You might be able to build it for less, but how much is your time worth? You have to design your board and get it made, and all the research that goes along with that. Get the parts in one-off qty that aren't always available as such. Then you have to sort out the software tools and libraries etc etc

There are others available, but prices are similar, try this Blackfin DSP audio kit:

It's got everything you need for audio DSP development, tons of memory and I/O etc, plus all a whole bunch of software tools. Digikey have it for $371.

Analog devices have other ranges of Audio development kits in their SHARC, TigerSHARC, Blackfin and ADSP-2100 platforms.

Dave.

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I forgot to mention that you don't need a DSP for audio processing these days, many of the 16/32 bit processors on the market can easily handle it. You might be able to score a processor development kit with an audio interface for cheaper than the DSP offerings perhaps.

Dave.

Isn't that part of the fun though? I'll eventually have to do that anyways. The only reason I would want the board is so I have some guide lines on how all the components fit together(since I can't seem to find any documentation to help) and because if/when I do it myself I know I'll f*ck it up and spend days or weeks if not months on some stupid little thing.

I was just looking at that. It was about 300$ direct. The Blackfin seems pale in comparison to the TMS series though. The Shark seems to be decent though.

I think I'm just going to try and design a board myself. It may or may not work but I suppose I can post my results here and get a little help. It just seems it will be a few months before I can even start unless I can find some good documentation. The EVM is pretty nice in that it has a bunch of stuff but I don't think I need it all and most likely its overkill. Its nice to have but I wouldn't want to waste 500$(min since I'll need software stuff too) if I don't follow through with the project I have in mind(although it would be nice to have around but not for the price).

I'll see what I can come up with though. Trying to gather some info on it now. The TMS datasheet just didn't give me much hope for finding good info.

Thanks, Jon

Yes but I think ultimately this is what I want to learn since I have a lot of projects I would like to eventually work on that involve signal processing(all audio stuff). Although I was initially planing on doing it with the pc, I think it will be much more interesting to do it using a DSP processor(and I think it will be more enjoyable if I'm able to put together the hardware for it instead of just doing software).

Thanks, Jon

It depends.

filtering(well,

If all you need is filtering the audio signal and some effects, the simplest solution would be a digital audio processor. Consider TAS3004 from TI. It does have the stereo codec built in. There are also many newer DAPs made by AD, TI, Cirrus Logic, NXP, AKM and others.

think

You will probably need a flash memory.

Well. The hardest part is to get "some code" to work.

problems

Consider buying a DSP evaluation board.

It is not a rocket science however it requires time and effort, as everything.

for

any

You can use schematic of a DSP evaluation board as a reference.

Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Consultant

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That hardware is essentially the same regardless of whether you use a micro, DSP, or FPGA with a processor soft core, the only real difference is in the speed of processing. In fact FPGA's are becoming very popular these days for DSP processing, with all sorts of DSP hardware slices built in to the FPGA fabric, that's where the future seems to be. But that is a much more difficult learning curve than a DSP processor.

If you write your code portable enough in C, the bulk of he software will be the same regardless of the hardware used. You can do the software development on the PC with a sound card and then port it fairly easily to your DSP chip and dedicated hardware.

I can appreciate wanting to do the hardware aspect yourself though, have fun!

Dave.

The TAS does not seem to have any DSP like features and the filters are built in. I need more control because I want to design my own(although nothing that hasn't been done).

Yeah. TI doesn't seem to make memory? Not sure where to go with that and not sure if I can find something that is "plug in play"(that isn't going to require any controllers or anything).

If you mean from the hardware perspective then I agree(in that I need the hardware setup properly to get the software to work)... but I'm a lot more comfortable with coding than I am with building "complex" circuits(its mainly that a f*ck up, which I do a lot, is pretty costly in hardware compared to software).

I've considered it but I think I'll try and roll my own.

It was something I was looking for but where can I get such a thing? Specifically for TI as I think I'm more interested in the TMS then anything else I saw.

Thanks, Jon

Yes and that is something else I've been wanting to get into ;) DSP's though just seem more direct at this point and I have all the stuff to do it(just not necessarily to do it well). Again, the main issue with the DSP seems to be the documentation. I guess I just need to spend more time reading it though.

True. The majority of the project is standard stuff though so I think the main issues are the hardware and dsp specific stuff.

I hope ;)

Thanks, Jon

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If you are going to build your own circuit you'll have to get your hands dirty and go through all that anyhow. A starter kit is nice, but the limits are usually reached quite soon (like having no room for surface mounted components). I mostly design my own starter kits (based on diagrams from existing starter kits) which only contain what I really need to evaluate.

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Have you done anything like this and if so how did you start? The thing I'm worried about is all the trouble to set it up then miss something. As far as I see it, its mainly just routing and there are few little things like the power supply and power issues involved but because I can't seem to find anything on how to do even a basic dsp I'm worried I'll easily miss a lot of things ;/ The datasheets only seem to talk about very specific things but really how to connect the different components. (I do understand most of its routing but I guess I just need to see what someone else has done and what works)

Thanks, Jon