In racent years the LSI technology has witnessed a revoluti onary development, and allowed substantial reductions in the size and cost of digital logic circuitry. Computer system building blocks have progressed from the level of discrete components to the level of complex ICs involving many logic circuits on a single "chip". The invention and wide applica tions of microprocessors have changed the philosophy of the signal processing, measurement and control engineering fields. The microprocessor-based digital signal processing systems and controllers have replaced the conventional ones based on standard analog and digital computing equipment. The first microprocessors and "on-chip" computers have appeared towards the end of 71 beginning 72. Their evolution since then and the number of applications, in which they have been utilized, have both been extremely spectacular. New system concepts and hardware/software tools are steadily under development to sup port the microprocessor in its multiple and complex tasks. The goal of this book is to provide a cohesive and well-balan ced set of contributions dealing with important aspects and applications of microprocessors to signal processing, measu rement and system control. The majority of contributions in clude sufficient review material and present rather complete treatments of the respective topics.
