The optimization procedure is as follows. First, a reference system
is designed using a floating-point or a fixed-point format with a
long word-length to verify the operation of the system when there
are either negligible or no overtlows and signal quantization effects.
Second, a fixed-point performlance measure, such as the signal-toquantization-
noise ratio (SQNF!) block, is added to quantify the finite
word-length effects when the word-length for the implementation of
the system changes. An example for a first-order recursive digital
filtering algorithm is shown in Fig. 1. The reference output to the
SQNR block is generated by tihe simulation of the reference system.
Third, we have the software groups signals that need to have the same