winDSK: a Windows-based DSP demonstration and debugging program

Today there is a global need for engineers who are DSP literate. An obvious solution for supplying this need is to educate new engineers. To help educate the next generation of DSP engineers, several powerful and highly versatile DSP boards designed for educational use are offered. The problem with most of these systems is that they lack user-friendly software to demonstrate the capabilities of the DSP boards. Some of the software shipped with these devices has a very steep learning curve, while other packages are still DOS or command line based. Most of today's students are hesitant to approach these impediments to learning without significant motivation. To allow a student's first hardware based DSP experience to be a positive one, software tools must be provided that are affordable, easy to install, attention getting, Windows based, and feature rich. This paper discusses winDSK, an object-oriented application program that meets these requirements.