Upgrading digital signal processing development boards in an introductory undergraduate signals and systems course
This paper presents the results of a controlled one semester study where students responded to a hardware upgrade from the Texas Instruments TMS320C6713 DSK development board to the Beagleboard-xM platform in the laboratory associated with the first Electrical and Computer Engineering course in signal processing at the undergraduate level. The sophomore-level course in signal processing is required of all engineering majors and provides a foundation in the mathematical modeling and analysis of signals and of linear time-invariant systems. The laboratory component of the course utilizes applications of signal processing to motivate the breadth of the field which includes filters, AM modulation, and Nyquist sampling theory. In this study, both the TMS320C6713 DSK development board with its 225MHz processor and the newer Beagleboard-xM with its 1 GHz processer provide students with a real-time, programmable signal-processing hardware platform that enhances the learning experience. The DSK board requires the use of an intermediary software tool, Code Composer Studio to compile and program whereas the Beagleboard interfaces directly with MATLAB. Analysis of the usefulness of the hardware upgrade was carried out by assessing students' acceptance of the DSK versus the Beagleboard-xM in terms of its usefulness and usability over four key laboratory experiments: Digital Audio Effects, Touch-Tone Phone, Voice Scrambler-Descrambler, and Sampling and Aliasing. The extent to which the two hardware platforms were able to successfully achieve learning outcomes in the course is also presented.
