Software for embedded DSPs

Digital signal processors (DSPs) have become a frequently used component in embedded control systems. DSPs are today often used in quite complex applications, often tightly connected with other types of microprocessors. The complexity and size of the software makes it important to achieve modularity and code reuse in combination with efficient executions on the DSP hardware. Software aspects for embedded DSPs have been investigated based on an application example from robot control. Some identified problems like modularity, encapsulation of hardware features, management of shared data, and interfacing to sensors, have been solved using object oriented programming and the C++ language. Other problems concerning concurrency and real-time aspects of DSP programming show the need for further research.