The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to
Digital Signal Processing
By Steven W. Smith, Ph.D.

Chapter 4: DSP Software

DSP applications are usually programmed in the same languages as other science and engineering tasks, such as: C, BASIC and assembly. The power and versatility of C makes it the language of choice for computer scientists and other professional programmers. On the other hand, the simplicity of BASIC makes it ideal for scientists and engineers who only occasionally visit the programming world. Regardless of the language you use, most of the important DSP software issues are buried far below in the realm of whirling ones and zeros. This includes such topics as: how numbers are represented by bit patterns, round-off error in computer arithmetic, the computational speed of different types of processors, etc. This chapter is about the things you can do at the high level to avoid being trampled by the low level internal workings of your computer.

• Computer Numbers
• Fixed Point (Integers)
• Floating Point (Real Numbers)
• Number Precision
• Execution Speed: Program Language
• Execution Speed: Hardware
• Execution Speed: Programming Tips