which board to buy- please help

Hi all,

I am considering buying a DSP board to get some hands-on experience in
working on DSP. I have theoretical knowledge of DSP but zero practical
experience. I will be doing some projects on DSP in say 3-4 months time. So
i need to be prepared for that. (i have no idea what project i'll put in)
I need some help regarding which one to buy. I am not having a concrete idea
about what application i intend to do. Just have a feel that i may work on
speech codecs. Cost is one of my major factors. So i investigated some
boards which cost less that $200.

 The boards that i have considered so far are
1. TMS320C50 board which is available for as low as $150 (planning to use
trial version of codeComposer)
2. TMS320C31 board which is a floating point DSP for almost the same cost.
3. Freescale (motorola ) boards for about $100 with codeWarrior software
IDE.
4. ADSP 2181 for about  $150.

Please clarify some points-

1)I heard that it is always better to go for TI floating point processors
are more companies are using it...Is it true?
2)I was adviced against going for motorola processors as my experience may
not be useful if i work on TI processors in the future?
3)Also please advice me on whether should i stretch my financial constraints
a bit more and consider buying a latest DSP processor, say TMS320C6xx
series?
4) Or is it okay if i just have experience in "some" processor.. i can adapt
to any processor later. ( of course how fast i can adapt is relative and
varies from person to person, but generally speaking what is the opinion?)


Finally if u know some vendor who ships DSP boards, please let me know.
thanx in advance.

> The boards that i have considered so far are
> 1. TMS320C50 board which is available for as low as $150 (planning to use
> trial version of codeComposer)

I don't know about the development board, because I always used the DSP in 
the prototype product but I can tell you that I've used a few 
compilers/debuggers and Code Composer is one of the loveliest I've worked 
with.

> 2. TMS320C31 board which is a floating point DSP for almost the same cost.
> 3. Freescale (motorola ) boards for about $100 with codeWarrior software
> IDE.
> 4. ADSP 2181 for about  $150.
>
> Please clarify some points-
>
> 1)I heard that it is always better to go for TI floating point processors
> are more companies are using it...Is it true?
> 2)I was adviced against going for motorola processors as my experience may
> not be useful if i work on TI processors in the future?
> 3)Also please advice me on whether should i stretch my financial 
> constraints
> a bit more and consider buying a latest DSP processor, say TMS320C6xx
> series?
> 4) Or is it okay if i just have experience in "some" processor.. i can 
> adapt
> to any processor later. ( of course how fast i can adapt is relative and
> varies from person to person, but generally speaking what is the opinion?)
>
>
> Finally if u know some vendor who ships DSP boards, please let me know.
> thanx in advance.
>
>
>
> 

Raghavendra Mahuli wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I am considering buying a DSP board to get some hands-on experience in
> working on DSP. I have theoretical knowledge of DSP but zero practical
> experience. I will be doing some projects on DSP in say 3-4 months time.
> So i need to be prepared for that. (i have no idea what project i'll put
> in) I need some help regarding which one to buy. I am not having a
> concrete idea about what application i intend to do. Just have a feel that
> i may work on speech codecs. Cost is one of my major factors. So i
> investigated some boards which cost less that $200.
> 
>  The boards that i have considered so far are
> 1. TMS320C50 board which is available for as low as $150 (planning to use
> trial version of codeComposer)
> 2. TMS320C31 board which is a floating point DSP for almost the same cost.
> 3. Freescale (motorola ) boards for about $100 with codeWarrior software
> IDE.
> 4. ADSP 2181 for about  $150.
> 
> Please clarify some points-
> 
> 1)I heard that it is always better to go for TI floating point processors
> are more companies are using it...Is it true?
> 2)I was adviced against going for motorola processors as my experience may
> not be useful if i work on TI processors in the future?
> 3)Also please advice me on whether should i stretch my financial
> constraints a bit more and consider buying a latest DSP processor, say
> TMS320C6xx series?
> 4) Or is it okay if i just have experience in "some" processor.. i can
> adapt to any processor later. ( of course how fast i can adapt is relative
> and varies from person to person, but generally speaking what is the
> opinion?)
> 
> 
> Finally if u know some vendor who ships DSP boards, please let me know.
> thanx in advance.

New Micros has some nice, inexpensive little boards. They can be programmed 
in C or Forth and possible BASIC. They sell for around $80 in single 
quantities. I use them.

Noel

Noel Henson wrote:

> 
> New Micros has some nice, inexpensive little boards. They can be
> programmed in C or Forth and possible BASIC. They sell for around $80 in
> single quantities. I use them.
> 

Oops. You can find them at www.newmicros.com. The MiniPod and PlugAPod are 
my current favorites.

Noel

Raghavendra Mahuli wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I am considering buying a DSP board to get some hands-on experience in
> working on DSP. I have theoretical knowledge of DSP but zero practical
> experience. I will be doing some projects on DSP in say 3-4 months time. So
> i need to be prepared for that. (i have no idea what project i'll put in)
> I need some help regarding which one to buy. I am not having a concrete idea
> about what application i intend to do. Just have a feel that i may work on
> speech codecs. Cost is one of my major factors. So i investigated some
> boards which cost less that $200.
> 
> [snip]

I suggest posting to comp.dsp .

A least one vendor of such boards posts there.
You will also find much info on chip manufacturers demo boards there.