Hands-on real-time DSP teaching using inexpensive arm cortex M4 development systems

Hands-on, real-time digital signal processing (DSP) program examples from the textbook Digital Signal Processing and Applications with the OMAP-L138 eXperimenter [1] have been ported to a number of different, inexpensive ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller-based evaluation modules (EVMs). The ARM Cortex M4 is a DSP-enhanced microcontroller with floating point unit (FPU) that is capable of running these real-time examples. EVMs using this microcontroller are an order of magnitude less expensive than more conventional DSP EVMs (including the OMAP-L138 eXperimenter.) ARM Cortex M4 EVMs including the STMicro STM32F4 Discovery, Texas Instruments Tiva Launchpad, and Freescale FRDM-K20D50M represent a quantum change in the cost of hardware suitable for hands-on, real-time DSP teaching. However, these EVMs do not include audio codecs, necessitating the development of additional hardware. Prototype audio codec daughter cards for three different EVMs have been demonstrated successfully.