DARP - A Digital Audio Reconfigurable Processor

摘要

This paper presents DARP, a novel digital audio signal re-configurable processor based on the low cost Spartan II XC2S200 FPGA device. The system can handle several tens of digital audio signals in parallel, and can be programmed and controlled by a host computer. Its main advantages are: multi-functionality, high performance, low cost and low power. Several digital audio cores have been developed, which can be combined in different ways to implement a variety of complex digital audio algorithms in DARP. Several expensive commercial systems would be needed to achieve the processing power that is possible with DARP. A case study of an 8 x 8 stereo audio matrix and format converter is presented. Our area, frequency and latency results show that FPGAs can compete with ASIC, processor or DSP solutions for implementing complex, cost effective and flexible digital audio systems.