Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Michael G. Morrow
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thad B. Welch
US. Naval Academy, MD
Cameron H. G. Wright
U.S. Air Force Academy, CO
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student's first experience with the DSK is a positive and as sampling rate) in real-time while the application is
motivating one. It makes the DSK hardware much more running on the DSK. The available applications include an
accessible to students, and facilitates easy-to-use, ready- oscilloscopelspectrum analyzer, multi-channel signal
made classroom and laboratoly demonstrations. For and/or arbitrary waveform generator, graphic equalizer,
simplicity, all application software and DSK code is audio effects, guitar synthesizer, several filters, and DTMF
embedded in the executable file. A help file provides a generator. More detailed descriptions of some
section on each demonstration that discusses the theory applications follow.
and operation of the application, and context -specific help
is available on each application conh.ol. 3.1. Talk-Through
To eliminate the requirement to have Code Composer
Studio installed on a machine running the software, a The talk-through application is a simple pass-through
completely new DSK driver was developed that operates operation, echoing the input signal to the output. It allows
under Windows 9X/NT/2000. (Operation under Windows for demonstrations of quantization effects by allowing the
XP has not been thoroughly tested as of the submission user to vary the effective number of bits from the maximum
date o f this paper.) winDSK6 is written in C++, and down to just 1. This provides for dramatic demonstrations
centers on an object that encapsulates the DSK's physical of converter resolution versus perceived noise floor. Since
and logical interface to the host computer. The most of the available audio codecs use sigmadelta
applications that form the basis of winDSK6 have evolved converters, it is not possible to demonstrate aliasing at
over time and experience, with the authors' needs in the normal audio frequencies. By decimating without filtering,
classroom and laboratory being the motivating force winDSK6 makes it possible to vary the effective sample
behind new applications and capabilities in the current frequency and demonstrate aliasing effects even when
version. using these converters. Spectral inversion can also he
Individual applications are dialog-based, and perform demonstrated.
a similar sequence of operations to execute an application
program:
Reset and reboot the DSK
Download the application software
Locate the shared memory block and initialize
any data to synchronize the host computer
and the DSK
Run the DSK application
This occurs immediately upon selecting an application.
Once the application is running, communications through
the shared memory block are used to control the DSK
Figure 1 Screen capture of talk-through appplicatioa
application's behavior in response to user input on the
host computer. This gives users real-time interactivity and 3.2. Graphic Equalizer
immediate feedback when changes are made on the host
computer. The graphic equalizer application implements a five-band
graphic equalizer on each channel of the analog interface.
3. DEMONSTRATIONAPPLICATIONS It is implemented as five parallel FIR filters, an intentionally
brute force method to demonstrate the available
The winDSK6 demonstration applications highlight a processing power. Individual slider controls are used
number of signal processing operations. Nearly all manipulate the gain in each band and overall.
applications require only the basic DSK hardware to
operate, although the limitations of the DSK's onboard
codec do significantly restrict what can he accomplished.
In our experience, we have found that using one of the CD-
quality codec daughtercards (available from Texas
Instruments, Educational DSP, and other sources) to be
much more useful. For this reason, winDSK6 provides
support for these more capable analog interfaces in most
applications. Applications also include a DSK Settings
Figure 2 Screen capture of graphic equalizer application.
button that allows for the control of codec functions (such
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Texas Instrument THS1206 evaluation module (EVM). This
3.3. Arbitrary Waveform Generator analog interface provides four simultaneously sampled 12-
bit channels at variable sample rates ranging up to in
The arbitrary waveform generator application is capable of excess of 1OOKHz.
generating sine, triangle, or square waveforms, or noise, to
the limits of the analog interface (amplitude and
frequency). The user can also download a series of values
from an ASCII text file on the host computer for arbitrary
waveform generation with one-shot or continuous
playback. On multichannel codecs, each channel is
independently controllable. This application is useful as a
no-additional-cost function generator for experimentation
when test equipment may not be available.
.. .
I
Figure 4 Screen capture of oscilloscope controls.
164
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valid range. Fixed’point values are displayed in both their
fractional equivalent representations and the actual integer
value.
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3.8. THS1206 Aliasing
I. . . . .
,
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4. SUPPORTING STUDENTPROJECTS
As educators, we need to provide informative and
One consequence of using winDSK6 has been a provocative demonstrations in our classrooms and labs, to
corresponding desire by students to create a simil& stimulate student interest and encourage learning.
interface for the DSP applications that they have written. winDSE6 is a tool that helps us to accomplish all these
However, the development and debugging of a complete things and more. The authors have found its capabilities to
interface of this nature is not possible for most students, he invaluable in a wide variety of situations, including the
given that they usually lack any significant experience in expected use in DSP and communications courses, but
writing software applications for the Microsoft Windows also very effective in computer engineering courses and in
API, the relative complexity of the DSK’s hardware high-school outreach programs. Paired with the significant
interface, the generally poor availability of good hardware capabilities of the TMS320C6711 DSK, winDSK6
documentation for the purpose, and simply having enough is an excellent demonstration platform in the classroom and
time to put it all together. (The authors’ experience in this in the laboratory. Although the authors have not
same endeavor has provided the opportunity for an in- conducted a scientifically valid study of the effects of
depth verification of these issues.) using winDSE6 specifically, observation and anecdotal
Recognizing this, the authors packaged the winDSE6 evidence indicate that it can play a significant role in both
DSK interface kernel with a complete and functional motivating students and providing them with a pathway to
project to give students a realistic opportunity to pursue experimentation and self-learning. Many students have
development of a graphical user interface for their remarked about the lasting impression that these real-time
applications. This package includes all source code for demonstrations made on them.
both a complete Microsoft Visual C++ application for the The authors freely distribute this software for
host PC and a complete Code Composer Studio application educational, non-profit use, and it may be downloaded
for the DSK. This sample application actually. implements hm:
most of the functionality of the Talk-Through application. http://eeeservO.ece.wise.edu/-morrowlsoff
By using this framework as a starting point, students are Source code for DSK applications is also available to
able to create a Windows interface to control their DSP educators. Interested parties are invited to contact the
application in a reasonable amount of time. This framework authors via email (morrow@ieee.org, tb.welch@ieee.org,
is available for download as described below. c.h.g.wright@ieee.org).
5. CONCLUSIONS &REFERENCES
To provide positive, motivating experiences to students [ I J M. G. Morrow, T. B. Welch, and C. H. G. Wright, “An
early in their DSP education, we must provide them with inexpensive software tool for teaching real-time DSP,” in
software tools that are intuitive, attention getting, robust, Proceedings of the 1st IEEE DSP in Education Workshop,
and easily installed. We must encourage experimental (Hunt, TX), IEEE Signal Processing Society, Oct. 2000.
learning, and provide vehicles for students who are not yet
ready for the complexities of real-time DSP programming. [2] C. H. Wright, T. B. Welch, D. M. Etter, and M. G.
These tools must also be intuitive, graphical, feature-rich, Morrow, “Teaching DSP: Bridging the Gap from Theory to
robust, and, of course, affordable. Real-Time Hardware,” in Proceedings of the 2002 ASEE
Annual Conference, (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), June
2002. Session 3220.
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