Fixed-Point Signal Processing

More than 90 percent of signal-processing systems use finite-precision (fixed-point) arithmetic. This is because fixed-point hardware is lower cost and lower power, and often higher speed than floating-point hardware. The advantage of fixed-point hardware in a digital signal processing (DSP) microprocessor ( P) is largely due to the reduced data word size, since fixed-point is practical with 16 bit data, while floating-point usually requires 32 bit data. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) gain similar advantages from fixed-point data word length and have the additional advantage of being customizable to virtually any desired word length. Unfortunately, most academic coursework ignores the unique challenges of fixed-point algorithm design. This text is intended to fill that gap by providing a solid introduction to fixed-point algorithm design. Readers will see both the theory and the application of the theory to useful algorithms.