Digital signal processing

Digital signal processing (DSP) is concerned with the processing of digital signals or analog signals after converting from analog to digital format. DSP includes subfields like: communication signals processing, radar signal processing, sensor array processing, digital image processing, etc.

DSP is used with real-world analog signals when this will work better than analog signal processing. The first step is usually to convert the signal from an analog to a digital form, by using an analog-to-digital converter. Often, the required output signal is another real-world analog signal, which requires a digital-to-analog converter.

Digital signal processing algorithms can run on:^[1]

1. General purpose microprocessors and standard computers.
2. Specialized processors called digital signal processors (DSPs).
3. Purpose-built hardware such as application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
4. Digital Signal Controllers (mostly for industrial applications such as motor control).
5. Stream processing that works very well for traditional DSP or graphics processing applications (such as image, video).