Considerations for Planning a DSP Hardware Class

DSP theory courses have been standard fare in electrical engineering departments for many years, however DSP hardware courses are less common, and designing a course syllabus is not so straightforward. Two syllabus decisions involve course emphasis and course structure. For example, should the course focus on low-level DSP programming topics such as pipelining, or is the goal to enhance student understanding of important DSP concepts? Secondly, should the class use traditional lectures, or should class time be devoted largely to hands-on laboratory experiences with minimal lecture time? This paper attempts to summarize the most important course decisions, in order to begin a discussion of what format works best for these classes.