DSPRelated.com

A Recipe for a Basic Trigonometry Table

Cedron Dawg October 4, 2022
Introduction

This is an article that is give a better understanding to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by showing how to build a Sine and Cosine table from scratch. Along the way a recursive method is developed as a tone generator for a pure tone complex signal with an amplitude of one. Then a simpler multiplicative one. Each with drift correction factors. By setting the initial values to zero and one degrees and letting it run to build 45 values, the entire set of values needed...


A New Contender in the Quadrature Oscillator Race

Rick Lyons September 24, 20226 comments

This blog advocates a relatively new and interesting quadrature oscillator developed by A. David Levine in 2009 and independently by Martin Vicanek in 2015 [1]. That oscillator is shown in Figure 1.

The time domain equations describing the Figure 1 oscillator are

     w(n) =...


A New Related Site!

Stephane Boucher September 22, 20224 comments

We are delighted to announce the launch of the very first new Related site in 15 years!  The new site will be dedicated to the trendy and quickly growing field of Machine Learning and will be called - drum roll please - MLRelated.com.

We think MLRelated fits perfectly well within the “Related” family, with:

  • the fast growth of TinyML, which is a topic of great interest to the EmbeddedRelated community
  • the use of Machine/Deep Learning in Signal Processing applications, which is of...

Filtering Noise: The Basics (Part 1)

Aditya Dua September 17, 20223 comments
Introduction

Finding signals in the presence of noise is one of the fundamental quests of the discipline of signal processing. Noise is inherently random by nature, so a probability oriented approach is needed to develop a mathematical framework for filtering (i.e. removing/suppressing) noise. This framework or discipline, formally referred to as stochastic signal processing, is often taught in graduate level engineering programs and is covered from different perspectives in excellent...


Book Recommendation "What is Mathematics?"

Neil Robertson June 20, 20227 comments

What is Mathematics is a classic, lucidly written survey of mathematics by Courant and Robbins.  The first edition was published in 1941!  I have only read a portion of it, mainly the chapter on calculus.  One page of Courant is worth about five pages of my old college calculus textbook, and it’s a lot more fun to read.

The reader of this book should already be familiar with algebra and trigonometry.  For engineers, some worthwhile sections of the book are:


Evaluate Noise Performance of Discrete-Time Differentiators

Neil Robertson March 28, 20228 comments

When it comes to noise, all differentiators are not created equal.  Figure 1 shows the magnitude response of two differentiators.  They both have a useful bandwidth of a little less than π/8 radians (based on maximum magnitude response error of 2%).  Suppose we apply a signal with Gaussian noise to each of these differentiators.  The sinusoidal signal with noise is shown in the top of Figure 2.  Signal frequency is π/12.5 radians.  The output of the so-called...


Off-Topic: A Fluidic Model of the Universe

Cedron Dawg February 2, 20226 comments
Introduction

This article is a followup to my previous article "Off Topic: Refraction in a Varying Medium"[1]. Many of the concepts should be quite familiar and of interest to the readership of this site. In the "Speculations" section of my previous article, I mention the goal of finding a similar differential equation as (18) of [1] for light traveling in gravity. It turns out it is the right equation, but a wrong understanding. As a consequence of trying to solve this puzzle, a new...


Learn About Transmission Lines Using a Discrete-Time Model

Neil Robertson January 12, 20222 comments

We don’t often think about signal transmission lines, but we use them every day.  Familiar examples are coaxial cable, Ethernet cable, and Universal Serial Bus (USB).  Like it or not, high-speed clock and signal traces on printed-circuit boards are also transmission lines.

While modeling transmission lines is in general a complex undertaking, it is surprisingly simple to model a lossless, uniform line with resistive terminations by using a discrete-time approach.  A...


Determination of the transfer function of passive networks with MATLAB Functions

Josef Hoffmann December 7, 20212 comments

With MATLAB functions, the transfer function of passive networks can be determined relatively easily. The method is explained using the example of a passive low-pass filter of the sixth order, which is shown in Fig.1

Fig.1 Passive low-pass filter of the sixth order

If one tried, as would be logical, to calculate the transfer function starting from the input, it would be quite complicated. On the other hand, if you start from the output, the determination of this function is simple...


A DSP Quiz Question

Rick Lyons December 5, 202112 comments

Here's a DSP Quiz Question that I hope you find mildly interesting

BACKGROUND

Due to the periodic natures an N-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT) sequence and that sequence’s inverse DFT, it is occasionally reasonable to graphically plot either of those sequences as a 3-dimensional (3D) circular plot. For example, Figure 1(a) shows a length-32 x(n) sequence with its 3D circular plot given in Figure 1(b).

HERE'S THE QUIZ QUESTION:

I was reading a paper by an audio DSP engineer where the...

Understanding and Implementing the Sliding DFT

Eric Jacobsen April 23, 201512 comments
Introduction

In many applications the detection or processing of signals in the frequency domain offers an advantage over performing the same task in the time-domain.   Sometimes the advantage is just a simpler or more conceptually straightforward algorithm, and often the largest barrier to working in the frequency domain is the complexity or latency involved in the Fast Fourier Transform computation.   If the frequency-domain data must be updated frequently in a...


How to Find a Fast Floating-Point atan2 Approximation

Nic Taylor May 26, 201716 comments
Context Over a short period of time, I came across nearly identical approximations of the two parameter arctangent function, atan2, developed by different companies, in different countries, and even in different decades. Fascinated with how the coefficients used in these approximations were derived, I set out to find them. This atan2 implementation is based around a rational approximation of arctangent on the domain -1 to 1:

$$ atan(z) \approx \dfrac{z}{1.0 +...


Music/Audio Signal Processing

Julius Orion Smith III September 5, 20087 comments

Greetings,

This is my blog from the point of view of a music/audio DSP research engineer / educator. It is informal and largely nontechnical because nearly everything I have to say about signal processing is (or will be) somewhere in my four-book series: Mathematics of DFT with Audio Applications, Introduction to Digital Filters, Physical Audio Signal Processing and


Feedback Controllers - Making Hardware with Firmware. Part 10. DSP/FPGAs Behaving Irrationally

Steve Maslen November 22, 2018

This article will look at a design approach for feedback controllers featuring  low-latency "irrational" characteristics to enable the creation of physical components such as transmission lines. Some thought will also be given as to the capabilities of the currently utilized Intel Cyclone V, the new Cyclone 10 GX and the upcoming Xilinx Versal floating-point FPGAs/ACAPs.    

Fig 1. Making a Transmission Line, with the Circuit Emulator

 

Additional...


Interpolation Basics

Neil Robertson August 20, 201917 comments

This article covers interpolation basics, and provides a numerical example of interpolation of a time signal.  Figure 1 illustrates what we mean by interpolation.  The top plot shows a continuous time signal, and the middle plot shows a sampled version with sample time Ts.  The goal of interpolation is to increase the sample rate such that the new (interpolated) sample values are close to the values of the continuous signal at the sample times [1].  For example, if...


Simplest Calculation of Half-band Filter Coefficients

Neil Robertson November 20, 20179 comments

Half-band filters are lowpass FIR filters with cut-off frequency of one-quarter of sampling frequency fs and odd symmetry about fs/4  [1]*.  And it so happens that almost half of the coefficients are zero.  The passband and stopband bandwiths are equal, making these filters useful for decimation-by-2 and interpolation-by-2.  Since the zero coefficients make them computationally efficient, these filters are ubiquitous in DSP systems.

Here we will compute half-band...


PID Without a PhD

Tim Wescott April 26, 201612 comments

I both consult and teach in the area of digital control. Through both of these efforts, I have found that while there certainly are control problems that require all the expertise I can bring to bear, there are a great number of control problems that can be solved with the most basic knowledge of simple controllers, without resort to any formal control theory at all.

This article will tell you how to implement a simple controller in software and how to tune it without getting into heavy...


Round Round Get Around: Why Fixed-Point Right-Shifts Are Just Fine

Jason Sachs November 22, 20163 comments

Today’s topic is rounding in embedded systems, or more specifically, why you don’t need to worry about it in many cases.

One of the issues faced in computer arithmetic is that exact arithmetic requires an ever-increasing bit length to avoid overflow. Adding or subtracting two 16-bit integers produces a 17-bit result; multiplying two 16-bit integers produces a 32-bit result. In fixed-point arithmetic we typically multiply and shift right; for example, if we wanted to multiply some...


Plotting Discrete-Time Signals

Neil Robertson September 15, 20195 comments

A discrete-time sinusoid can have frequency up to just shy of half the sample frequency.  But if you try to plot the sinusoid, the result is not always recognizable.  For example, if you plot a 9 Hz sinusoid sampled at 100 Hz, you get the result shown in the top of Figure 1, which looks like a sine.  But if you plot a 35 Hz sinusoid sampled at 100 Hz, you get the bottom graph, which does not look like a sine when you connect the dots.  We typically want the plot of a...


FFT Interpolation Based on FFT Samples: A Detective Story With a Surprise Ending

Rick Lyons April 16, 201841 comments

This blog presents several interesting things I recently learned regarding the estimation of a spectral value located at a frequency lying between previously computed FFT spectral samples. My curiosity about this FFT interpolation process was triggered by reading a spectrum analysis paper written by three astronomers [1].

My fixation on one equation in that paper led to the creation of this blog.

Background

The notion of FFT interpolation is straightforward to describe. That is, for example,...


The New Forum is LIVE!

Stephane Boucher February 18, 20161 comment

After months of hard word, I am very excited to introduce to you the new forum interface.  

Here are the key features:

1- Easily add images to a post by drag & dropping the images in the editor

2- Easily attach files to a post by drag & dropping the files in the editor

3- Add latex equations to a post and they will be rendered with Mathjax (tutorial)

4- Add a code snippet and surround the code with


Helping New Bloggers to Break the Ice: A New Ipad Pro for the Author with the Best Article!

Stephane Boucher November 9, 2015

Breaking the ice can be tough. Over the years, many individuals have asked to be given access to the blogging interface only to never post an article.


Welcoming MANY New Bloggers!

Stephane Boucher October 27, 20153 comments

The response to the latest call for bloggers has been amazing and I am very grateful.

In this post I present to you the individuals who, so far (I am still receiving applications at an impressive rate and will update this page as more bloggers are added),  have been given access to the blogging interface.  I am very pleased with the positive response and I think the near future will see the publication of many great articles, given the quality of the...


Recruiting New Bloggers!

Stephane Boucher October 16, 20157 comments

Previous calls for bloggers have been very successful in recruiting some great communicators - Rick LyonsJason Sachs, Victor Yurkovsky, Mike Silva, Markus NentwigGene BrenimanStephen Friederichs,


Premium Forum?

Stephane Boucher May 25, 201514 comments

Chances are that by now, you have had a chance to browse the new design of the *related site that I published several weeks ago.  I have been working for several months on this and I must admit that I am very happy with the results.  This new design will serve as a base for many new exciting developments. I would love to hear your comments/suggestions if you have any, please use the comments system at the bottom of this page.

First on my list would be to build and launch a new forum...


The Sampling Theorem - An Intuitive Approach

Stephane Boucher January 26, 20151 comment

Scott Kurtz from DSPSoundWare.com has put together a video presentation that aims to help DSPers gain a better intuitive understanding of the Sampling Theorem.   Feel free to have a look and share your thoughts by commenting this blog post.


DSP Related Math: Nice Animated GIFs

Stephane Boucher April 24, 20143 comments

I was browsing the ECE subreddit lately and found that some of the most popular posts over the last few months have been animated GIFs helping understand some mathematical concepts.  I thought there would be some value in aggregating the DSP related gifs on one page.  

The relationship between sin, cos, and right triangles: Constructing a square wave with infinite series (see this...

DSPRelated and EmbeddedRelated now on Facebook & I will be at EE Live!

Stephane Boucher February 27, 20148 comments

I have two news to share with you today.

The first one is that I finally created Facebook pages for DSPRelated.com and EmbeddedRelated (DSPRelated page - EmbeddedRelated page). For a long time I didn't feel that this was something that was needed, but it seems that these days more and more people are using their Facebook account to stay updated with their favorite websites. In any event, if you have a Facebook account, I would greatly appreciate if you could use the next 5 seconds to "like"...


Collaborative Writing Experiment: Your Favorite DSP Websites

Stephane Boucher May 30, 2013

You are invited to contribute to the content of this blog post through the magic of Google Docs' real time collaboration feature.

I discovered this tool several months ago when I was looking for a way to coordinate our annual family halloween party (potluck) and avoid the very unpleasant situation of ending up with too much chips and not enough chocolate (first world problem!).  It was amusing to keep an eye on the "food you will bring" document we had created for this and watch...


DSPRelated Finally on Twitter!

Stephane Boucher February 20, 20132 comments

Hello!

It's been a while since you've heard from me - and there are many reasons why:

1 - I've made a clown of myself (video here)

2 - I've been working on unifying the user management system.  You can now participate to the three related sites (DSPRelated, FPGARelated and EmbeddedRelated) with only one account (same login info). 

3- I've been working on getting up to speed with social networks and especially Twitter.   I have resisted the idea for a while - at 40...