Introduction

What is Xtreme DSP and why do we care?  Xtreme DSP is more of a concept than something you can hold in your hand.  You can't load Xtreme DSP software to your computer.  Some background will make it easier to understand.  In the past if engineers wanted to develop a fairly complex design, like a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter onto an Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), they would do the work on paper.  They would then take this to someone who could write the VHDL (very hard darn language) that would then be capable of being developed onto the programmable logic.  Actually, VHDL stands for VHSIC Hardware Description Language, where VHSIC stands for Very High Speed Integrated Circuit. Like the name implies, VHDL is a language for describing the behavior of digital hardware. This process was exceedingly slow and required excessive time to implement changes if they were required.  To overcome this problem, Xilinx joined in a partnership with the Matlab and Mentor Graphics corporations to develop a series of software that when joined together is called XtremeDSP.  The thought behind it is that you can go from concept to a programmed device and ship it out the door much faster. 

EECE Labs Setup

The last version of the software required is loaded in the 238 lab (room 216). By required software we mean Matlab/Simulink R13, ISE 5.2 SP3, ModelSim SE 5.6a and Sysgen 3.1. Every machine in the room has a zip disk.  Save your work to a zip disk.  Here is the catch.  For Sysgen to work, you must do the work on the local hard drive.  Here is how you do it.  Each local drive has a directory called "DSP."  Go into this directory and delete everything in it.  Do your work there.  When you are done, copy it all to the zip disk for safe keeping.  If you save your work to the hard drive, it will be deleted.  You will need the XtremeDSP generator kit to actually test in hardware some of the things we will develop in the tutorials at this site.

Additional Material / Tutorials

Sysgen XtremeDSP Tutorials

Listed below is a couple of excellent audio clips that show you how to use the software. Although there are based in old software version, they are still useful to get a taste of what the whole concept of Sysgen is.

The two tutorials listed above are actually 11 minutes long each and are excellent quality.  You will need a sound card to view them and I would strongly advise you watching the first one.  The first one shows the same screen for awhile and without a sound card, it is hard to tell that it is actually playing.

It's also a good idea to go through the examples provided with the XtremeDSP kit. Actually, the introductory lab in this site is based on those examples, adding lots of necessary details and tasks for you to get to know the hardware and software you will be working on in future labs.  

Sysgen software includes demos that are also very good, take a look at them.To get your hands on it just go to Matlab Help and select Demos. You will find Sysgen demos by the end of the list.

LABS:

1.- Intoduction Lab:

• The goal of this first lab is for you to meet Sysgen software and the XtremeDSP kit. Sysgen will allow us to create system in the Simulink (Matlab) environment, simulate it in the same environment, even mix our system (hardware) with soft blocks and finally create the VHDL files necessaries to download the system in an FPGA.

2.- FIR Filter Lab

• In this lab we will create, simulate and test a FIR filter using the XtremeDSP kit. You will get a taste of frequency and sample time limitations as well as hardware issues.

3.- LMS equalizer

• This is a more complex lab. A LMS adaptive equalizer is implemented and tested in real noise reduction application.