Remote Instrumentation Laboratory for Digital Signal Processors Training

The development of computing and networking applications based on Internet has opened a new way to understand control and instrumentation systems. Information and communication technologies make possible the use of telecommunication networks, such as the Internet, to design remote applications applied to different fields, such as, telecontrol, measurement instrumentation, telemedicine, embedded systems, teaching and so on. Furthermore, remote control of measurement instrumentation for real experiments via the Internet is a growing topic of interest for many researchers (Chirico et al. 2005). This is especially noticeable in Digital Signal Processors (DSP) training, where practical training is absolutely essential to assure good knowledge transfer to educate good professionals (Hercog et al., 2007). A growing interest has been experienced on recent decades in the development of DSPbased devices. DSP technology is commonly employed nowadays in devices such as mobile phones, multimedia computers, video and DVB recorders, CD and MP3 players, hard disc drive controllers, modems, and will soon replace analog circuitry in TV sets, telephones and other circuits (Poornachandra and Sasikala, 2010). In fact, the sales of DSP devices exceed the sale of general-purpose microprocessors by almost 10:1 (Hong et al., 2004). The architecture of a DSP chip is designed to carry out operations incredibly fast, processing up to tens of millions of samples per second, to provide real-time performance, that is, the ability to process a signal “live” as it is samples and then output the processed signal, for example, to a loud speaker or video display. All the practical applications DSP mentioned earlier, such as disc drives and mobile phones, demand real-time operation and the design of such DSP solutions requires to the professionals a concurrent knowledge of signal processing methods and technology (Poornachandra and Sasikala, 2010). This fact has promoted the inclusion of DSP and DSP devices in the electronic engineering undergraduate curriculum. This tendency also appears in Instrumentation and Measurement courses. High quality DSP based instrumentation equipment has proliferated during the last years. Furthermore, one of the most demanded job profiles in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is related to the design of DSP applications, as it is claimed in the Career Space initiative (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001; Toral et al, 2006). The DSP Applications Designer is involved in requirement studies, simulations and performance analysis, and participates in the design and optimization of algorithms for signal modulation, detection