Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

This page covers the advantages and disadvantages of Digital Signal Processing (DSP). It highlights the benefits and drawbacks of using DSP.

DSP stands for Digital Signal Processor or Digital Signal Processing.

Introduction: What is DSP?

The DSP is a microprocessor chip with an optimized architecture designed to support the processing of complex algorithms at high speed in a short amount of time. DSP operates on digital signals. Therefore, all real-world signals and signals to be processed are converted to digital form using an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) beforehand.

Once the processing is completed, the digital signal is converted back to analog form using a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) as per the requirements.

DSP chips are manufactured by many companies, with popular manufacturers including TI, CEVA, Analog Devices, ARM, Intel, Freescale, and XILINX. Each manufacturer has its own hardware architecture and software instructions to support complex algorithms. Figure 1 (shown above) depicts typical components within a DSP chip.

Benefits or Advantages of DSP

Following are the benefits or advantages of DSP:

• High Accuracy: DSP offers very high accuracy. Filters designed using DSP provide tighter control over output accuracy compared to analog filters.
• Cost-Effective Implementation: Digital implementation is often cheaper compared to its analog counterpart.
• Easy Reconfiguration: Reconfiguration is difficult in analog systems, requiring changes to the entire hardware and its components. In DSP, reconfiguration is easy. Only the code or DSP program needs to be updated after incorporating changes as per the requirements.
• Various Interface Types: DSP offers various interface types such as UART and I2C, facilitating the interfacing of other ICs with the DSP.
• FPGA Interfacing: DSP can be interfaced with an FPGA. This combination is beneficial for designing the protocol stack of entire wireless systems such as WiMAX and LTE. In this type of architecture, some modules are ported to FPGA and some to DSP, based on latency requirements.

Drawbacks or Disadvantages of DSP

Following are the disadvantages of DSP:

• Additional Components: The use of DSP requires an anti-aliasing filter before the ADC and a reconstruction filter after the DAC. Moreover, it requires ADC and DAC modules. The use of these extra components increases the complexity of DSP-based hardware.
• Higher Power Dissipation: DSP processes signals at high speed and consists of more internal hardware resources. Due to this, DSP dissipates higher power compared to analog signal processing. Analog processing uses passive components (R, L, and C) which dissipate lower power.
• Training Required: The hardware architectures and software instructions of each DSP are different. This requires training on the specific DSP in order to program it for various applications. Hence, only highly skilled engineers can program the device.
• Cost of Chips: Most DSP chips are costly, and one needs to select the appropriate IC based on requirements (hardware and software).