VLSI Digital Signal Processing Systems: Design and Implementation

1.1    INTRODUCTION

Digital signal processing (DSP) has many advantages over analog signal processing. Digital signals are more robust than analog signals with respect to temperature and process variations. The accuracy in digital representations can be controlled better by changing the wordlength of the signal. Furthermore, DSP techniques can cancel the noise and interference while amplifying the signal. In contrast, both signal and noise are amplified in analog signal processing. Digital signals can be stored and recovered, transmitted and received, processed and manipulated, all virtually without error. While analog signal processing is indispensable for systems that require extremely high frequencies such as the radio frequency transceiver in wireless communications, or extremely low area and low power such as micro machine sensors used to detect cracks and other stress-related material defects, many complex systems are realized digitally with high precision, high signal to noise ratio (SNR), repeatability, and flexibility.

DSP systems can be realized using programmable processors or custom designed hardware circuits fabricated using very-large-scale-integrated (VLSI) circuit technology. The goal of digital design is to maximize the performance while keeping the cost down. In the context of general digital design, performance is measured in terms of the amount of hardware circuitry and resources required (i.e., space or area); the speed of execution, which depends on both throughput ...