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.
CHAPTER
DSP Software
4

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 i