Experimenting with DSPs is a fascinating pastime, but it can be difficult to find a good place to start. Generally speaking, DSP circuits use very high frequencies, which makes the PCB layout quite critical. In addition, DIY soldering of these components is almost impossible, because they are packaged in so-called Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs). How then, can we overcome these difficulties?A large number of problems can be avoided by using a ready-built development kit. An additional advantage is that these kits are usually supplied with a comprehensive development environment and plenty of examples. There is currently ample choice in DSP development kits. In this article we will take a close look at one such board and introduce it to you: the ADSP-BF533-EZ-KIT Lite from Analog Devices.