Ross Snider received his BSE degree in 1987 from Walla Walla College and his MSEE degree in 1990 from Michigan State University where for his Master's degree he implemented a speech recognition engine in C using Hidden Markov Models. During this time, the first Artificial Neural Network wave hit, but ANN's at the time couldn't perform any better than the HMM statistical models. Dr. Snider decided to spend time studying the real brain and got his PhD at Vanderbilt University in 1997 where he examined neural coding in the visual cortex. He then accepted a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University where he looked at neural coding in the auditory cortex. Dr. Snider currently teaches courses in Digital Signal Processing and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) at Montana State University - Bozeman. His research activities take on a cross-disciplinary approach where he works on systems that are located at the intersection of computer engineering, signal processing, and biology.

Uses an Integrated Hardware/Software Approach to teaching Digital Design

Walks readers through the creation of a complete custom computer system that can accelerate audio signal processing

Enables students to develop a system-level view of computing and develop skills to create custom hardware and software

Introduction to SoC FPGAs.- Hello World.- Software Control of LEDs via Registers.- Audio Codec and headphone driver.- FIR Filtering.- Data Movements using Direct Memory Access (DMA).- Frequency Domain Processing using FFTs.- Time Domain Sound Effects Processors.- Frequency Domain Sound Effects Processor.- Hearing Aid.- Multiple Audio Personalities.