A rapid prototyping framework for audio signal processing algorithms

We present a rapid-prototyping environment for functional verification and test of digital signal processing algorithms. The environment consists of a Virtex-ll device on a PCI-card and an appropriate generic software backend which is used to pre- and post-process the data and to transfer it to the FPGA and pull the results from it. It is designed to meet real-time requirements by means of interleaving block-transfers to and from a large on-board memory. We use the system for the development and test of audio signal processing applications. The implementation and test of the gammatone-resynthesis algorithm is described as an exemplary algorithm that has been tested within the environment. The presented system is part of a software framework for rapid development of power optimized audio signal processing applications on behavioral level using library elements.