Approximate Vector Magnitude Computation
Posted By Krishna Sankar On February 8, 2009 @ 6:43 am In DSP | 7 Comments
In this post, let us discuss a simple implementation friendly scheme for computing the absolute value of a complex number . The technique called
(alpha Max + beta Min) algorithm is discussed in Chapter 13.2 of Understanding Digital Signal Processing, Richard Lyons [1]
The magnitude of a complex number is
.
The simplified computation of the absolute value is
where
.
The values of and
can be tried out to understand the performance. For analysis we can use a complex number with magnitude 1 and phase from 0 to 180 degrees.
Option#1
= 1,
= 1/2,
Option#2
= 1,
= 1/4,
Option#3
= 1,
= 3/8
Option#4
= 7/8,
= 7/16
Option#5
= 15/16,
= 15/32
Simulation Model
The script performs the following.
(a) Generate a complex number with phase varying from 0 to 180 degrees.
(b) Find the absolute value using the above 5 options
(c) For each option, find the maximum error, average error and root mean square error
Click here to download Matlab/Octave script for computing the approximate value of magnitude of a complex number [3]
Figure: Plot of approximate value of magnitude of a complex number
| Option | alpha | beta | Maximum Error % | Average Error % | RMS error % |
| 1 | 1 | 1/2 | 11.80340 | 8.67667 | 9.21159 |
| 2 | 1 | 1/4 | -11.60134 | -0.64520 | 4.15450 |
| 3 | 1 | 3/8 | 6.80005 | 4.01573 | 4.76143 |
| 4 | 7/8 | 7/16 | -12.50000 | -4.90792 | 5.60480 |
| 5 | 15/16 | 15/32 | -6.25000 | 1.88438 | 3.45847 |
Table: Error in the approximate value computation with various values of ,
Observations
1. The chosen values of ,
facilitates simple multiplier-less implementation of approximate computation (can be implemented using only bit shift and addition).
2. For Options (1), (3) the maximum error is more than the expected value. Hence we need to allocate extra bits for the output to prevent overflow.
3. The error in the approximate magnitude computation repeats every 90 degrees.
Reference
Chapter 13.2 of Understanding Digital Signal Processing, Richard Lyons [1]
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URLs in this post:
[1] Understanding Digital Signal Processing, Richard Lyons: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FUnderstanding-Digital-Signal-Processing-Richard%2Fdp%2F0201634678&tag=dl04-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
[2] Digital Signal Processing Tricks – High-speed vector magnitude approximation : http://www.embedded.com/design/embeddeddsp/202600924?_requestid=7638
[3] Matlab/Octave script for computing the approximate value of magnitude of a complex number: http://www.dsplog.com/db-install/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/script_approximate_vector_magnitude_computation.m
[4] click here to SUBSCRIBE : http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=1348583&loc=en_US
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