Considerations in real-time signal processing under FORTRAN control

High-speed digital signal processors can provide substantial benefits in real-time research, but if the system is not user oriented, it will be of limited value. At SCRL, system speed increases of fifty to one hundred fold over assembly language programming have been attained through the use of a high-speed processor in conjunction with a minicomputer. More importantly, this has been accomplished under FORTRAN control. The flexibility of FORTRAN-callable real-time signal processing is not without disadvantages: the software runs some 10-25% slower than special-purpose signal processor software, all of the systems software associated with the programs must be rigorously optimized, and the software is rather expensive to develop. However, if the high-speed processor is to be used as a general purpose research tool, the benefits of this flexibility will more than offset the development cost.