5 January 2018

Advantages and disadvantages of digital signal processing

Digital signal processing the word itself says it is a process of analyzing the digital signal. The DSP is a microprocessor chip with optimized architecture to support the processing of complete algorithms at high speed in less time. Using DSP you can filter signals more accurately, and extract other signals from the information such as frequency components easily. Now we can check the advantages and disadvantages of digital signal processing to know more about it. 

Advantages of digital signal processing 
  • DSP offers high accuracy. Hence, filters designed in DSP have tighter control over the output accuracy.
  • Comparatively cheaper than an analog counterpart.
  • Reconfiguration is very easy and only code or DSP program needs to be flashed after changes as per requirement. Reconfiguration of an analog signal is difficult.
  • DSP offers various interface types such as UART, I2C helps in interfacing other ICs with the DSP.
  • DSP can be interfaced with FPGA helps in the design of a protocol stack of the entire wireless system such as WiMAX and LTE.
  • Digital system can be cascaded without any loading problem. 
  • The digital circuits can be reproduced easily in large quantities at a comparatively lower cost. 
  • The digital circuits are less sensitive to a tolerance of component values. 
  • DSP are easily transported because digital signals can be processed offline. 
  • Current computers can't process analog data so digitalization is necessary. 
  • Enables transmission of signals over a long distance. 
  • DSP use less bandwidth so that you can cram more information into the same space. 
  • DSP enables multi-directional transmission very easily. 
  • In DSP easier to translate human audio and video signals and other messages into machine language. 
  • Universal compatibility is possible in DSP compared to ASP. 
  • Mathematical processing algorithms can be easily implemented in DSP. 
  • Generally, all application needs standard hardware thus the operation of DSP is mainly dependent on software. 

Disadvantages of digital signal processing 

  • DSP requires an anti-aliasing filter before ADC and re-construction filter after DAC so it requires ADC and DAC modules. 
  • DSP dissipates higher power compared to ASP because DSP processed signals at high speed and moreover it consists of higher internal hardware resources. 
  • DSP chips are very costly and hence one needs to use the appropriate ICs as per requirement. 
  • The hardware architectures and software instructions of each DSP are different so training on DSP in order to program for various applications. Hence, Highly skilled engineers can only work on the device. 
  • A typical DSP chip contains more than 4 lakhs transistors thus power dissipation is more in DSP. 
  • DSP is costly for small applications as compared to ASP. 
  • DSP requires greater bandwidth to transmit the same information of ASP. 
  • Downgrading the quantity of data is possible but increasing the bit rate is also possible beyond the certain level. 
  • The detection of digital signals requires the communication system to be synchronized whereas there is no case in ASP. 

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