--- title: "Data Types for Control & DSP" url: https://daily.dev/posts/data-types-for-control-dsp-7bfkm7nq6 source_url: https://www.embeddedrelated.com/showarticle/944.php type: article source: "EmbeddedRelated" published: 2026-05-31T07:47:56.570Z updated: 2026-05-31T08:52:10.020Z tags: ["embedded"] reading_time: 13 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Data Types for Control & DSP **[EmbeddedRelated](https://daily.dev/sources/embeddedrelated)** · 13 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Control engineers often default to double-precision floating point, but this can waste CPU cycles on embedded targets. The post breaks down three numeric representation types — floating point, integer, and fixed-point — and walks through their tradeoffs for control and DSP applications. Key concerns covered include quantization effects, overflow handling, and integrator precision in PID controllers. A concrete example using a 16-bit ADC shows how 32-bit float can miss small increments in the integrator state, causing drift or oscillation. Practical rules of thumb are provided for choosing data types based on processor capabilities, with a strong recommendation to benchmark early in the project. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Moving integer division to floating-point is trivial](https://daily.dev/posts/moving-integer-division-to-floating-point-is-trivial-7s6ttpx3b) · MBR · 1 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/data-types-for-control-dsp-7bfkm7nq6)