ABSTRACT
Computing environments provided by software tools allow users to design, simulate, and implement
digital signal processing (DSP) techniques with speed, accuracy, and confidence. With access to libraries of
high-performance algorithms and to advanced visualization capabilities, we can design and analyze
systems using the equations and notations that we use to think about signal processing problems; we do not
have to translate the equations and techniques into a different notation and syntax. The graphics interface
provides an integral part of this design environment, and is accessible from any point within our
algorithms. Within this type of computing environment, we are more productive. However, even more
importantly, we develop better solutions because we have so many more tools for analyzing solutions, for
experimenting with ‘‘what if ’’ questions, and for developing extensive simulations to test our solutions. To
illustrate the power of these environments, we present a brief description of MATLAB, one of the most
popular technical computing environments in both industry and academia, and then present five examples
that use MATLAB.
