[sdiy] sdiy dsp board?

[asfi at eol.ca]

Quoting Tim Ressel <madhun2001 at yahoo.com>:
 
> Here is my wish list for a GP DSP board:
> 
> Suitable for development or use in a module
> At least 2 analog ins and 2 analog outs
> Front-end uP for handling midi, knobs, etc
> Enough memory and speed to handle our needs
> Flashing lights (geek requirement)
> 
> Thoughts?

You could set yourself up with the "Shifty Death Synth" which is based
on an evaluation board made by Analog Devices. It uses the ADSP-2181,
which these days is a bit long in the tooth, but it should have enough
processing power for the simple stuff.

Unfortunately, the "EZKIT Lite" used to be US$89 (a decent deal for
a demoboard complete with some software) but now it's US$245. Still,
in these days of nonexistent lifecycles, I'm amazed that something
that came out in Windows 3.1 days is still around:

http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0%2C2877%2C21xx%25252DEZLITE%2C00.html

Though the software tools have been updated since 1994. No more
DOS-based assembler -- now they offer a Visual C++ type of environment.

Info on how to turn the "EZKIT Lite" into a synth thingy is here:

http://www.gweep.net/~shifty/ezkit/general.html

....or you could also get one of the newer development kits from ADI.
I see they've got something called a "Melody 32 Multichannel Audio
Evaluation Board" which could be fun to play with. (ADI's website -- or
something along the way -- has just developed some constipation so I
can't check further...)

- Colin Hinz
  Toronto, Canada