dsPIC digital filter capabilities ?

[ash_dac]

I've been looking at the dsPICs 30F series and the link below lists a digital filter software suite.

http://www.microchip.com.tw/PDF/dsPICDEM.pdf

Does anyone have experience of these dsPIC's ?

[DSP_Geek]

The 16 bit data path is insufficient for audio. It's very marginal for FIRS, and completely unusable for IIRs. I use Motorola DSPs at work, and even with 24 bit data paths we need to be quite careful about dynamic range issues.

[BWRX]

At work, we use a dsPIC 30F series chip as the brain of a VCM/ECM (Vehicle/Engine Control Module), but that certainly isn't an audio application. Geek gave you enough reason as to why it probably isn't a good choice for your intended application.

[ash_dac]

Thank you for your replies.

Do you have any recommendations for a starter DSP evaluation board and entry level books?

[janneman]

I just bought the "DSP Filter Cookbook" from audioXpress. It's a good book to get started in digital filters without the heavy math. It DOES however go into programming skeletons of the filter routines in C++, but I guess that's necessary if you really want to go into that stuff. If you know basic fourier and programming it's a good source. It doesn't give you hardware implementation recipes though.

Jan Didden

[ash_dac]

http://www.analog.com/processors/lea...ook_index.html

I'm currently working my way through this DSP primer.

[DSP_Geek]

TI makes a cute little starter kit for their floating point DSPs:

http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/fold...dsdsk6713.html

It has analog ins & outs so you don't have to mess with building ADC/DAC stages, although they might not be the last word in audiophile-approved circuitry, and the floating point math helps you avoid most of the internal dynamic range issues of fixed-point DSPs.

That should get you started in DSP. It's a fair bit of work, but the first time you hear your code do something nice is really cool, and the feeling never goes away.

[jensenstefan]

FYI
I have a DSP starter kit for sale in the trading post section.
It could be a low cost entry into the DSP programming world.

[DSP_Geek]

Originally posted by jensenstefan
FYI
I have a DSP starter kit for sale in the trading post section.
It could be a low cost entry into the DSP programming world.

50 Euros is a pretty good price to get your feet wet with DSP, especially since the c3x series were nice floating point processors. You might mention whether you have the software tools for it, though.