Digital Signal Processing The Impact of Convergence on Hardware Design Flow

Design and development of real-time, memory and processor hungry digital signal processing systems have for decades been accomplished on general-purpose microprocessors. Various attempts to improve the performance of these systems resulted in the use of dedicated digital signal processing devices like DSP processors and the former heavyweight champion of electronics design — Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The advent of RAM-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays has changed the DSP design flow. Software algorithmic designers can now take their DSP algorithms right from inception to hardware implementation, thanks to the increasing number of C/C++ hardware design flow. This has led to a demand in the industry for graduates with good skills in both electrical engineering and computer science. This paper evaluates the impact of technology on DSP-based designs, hardware design languages, and how graduate/undergraduate courses have changed to suit this transition.