Customer Reviews

Digital Filter Design (Topics in Digital Signal Processing)

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Digital Filter Design by Parks and Burrus is a practical book. Even though I didn't have any prior digital filter design experience, I was able to apply what I have learned to design a sample filter. As a prerequsite, this book requires a strong background in fourier analysis and understanding in transfer function. The sample code provided is extremely helpful. The book is well organized and easy to understand (provided you meet the prerequsite).

This old book is pretty handy as a "just the facts ma'am" kind of guide. If you don't already know DSP, don't waste your time. You'll be totally lost and won't know what's going on. However, if you already know DSP and its associated theory and you need design rules in nice labeled steps with some examples and plenty of figures, this is a nice old book to have around. It's not trying to teach you anything, it's just trying to guide you through the design of specific types of filters. The only down side is that the programs that implement the various filters are all in Fortran. However, that is not really a fatal flaw. Every Fortran program is merely implementing an algorithm that has already been thoroughly explained. Unless you're bound and determined to completely lift programs from the book without understanding them AND you don't know Fortran, I'd say this old book is worth having in your library.

Don't let my review have you thinking there is no math in this book - there is plenty of it supporting the various filter designs. There are just no textbook explanations. For that I suggest Discrete-Time Signal Processing (2nd Edition) (Prentice-Hall Signal Processing Series). It is the definitive guide to DSP for beginners and professionals alike.

Ok, the TMS320 is now heavily outdated. The book was written in 1987, and the chip that it uses as an example was state of the art then. But Moore's Law continued inexorably in the intervening years. TI is still the market leader in DSP and now has much faster chips. No surprise.

However, the book itself retains an intrinsic utility. Much of it concerns the explaining of the maths and other ideas in DSPs. Including the crucial concepts of a Finite Impulse Response and an Infinite Impulse Response filter. All still very much germane. The treatment is comprehensive, going into the most common filters, like the Butterworth, and also how to design a filter.