Fred J. Taylor
University of Florida

Compared to floating-point DSP solutions, fixed-point advantages include cost, bandwidth, power dissipation, packaging, and data-independent instruction execution cycles. As a result, fixed-point solutions provide a decided advantage in the marketplace. The fixed-point designer must, however, always be cognisant of the presence of finite, fixed-point effects that can manifest themselves in a number of forms, from imprecision to instability. This paper provides insights for the DSP engineer into controlling and managing these effects.