Signal processing apparatus with user-configurable circuit configuration

A signal-processing method for performing signal-processing including a plurality of unit signal-processing steps in processing data units by means of signal-processing, each processing data unit having a predetermined number of data samples, the signal-processing method comprising:

• performing, by at least one processor, the plurality of unit signal-processing steps, respectively, using a plurality of signal-processing modules;
• storing and managing the plurality of signal-processing modules and circuit configuration information represented by a virtual connection state of inputs and outputs of the plurality of signal-processing modules;
• determining a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the circuit configuration information by performing path routing;
• executing the signal-processing by sequentially enabling the plurality of signal-processing modules in the determined signal-processing order;
• and
• determining whether a circuit-configuration change request from a user is received during the execution of the signal-processing, and in response to determining that the circuit-configuration change request from the user is received:
• changing the circuit configuration information;
• and
• re-executing the path routing to determine a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the changed circuit configuration information during a period from an end of the signal-processing in a processing data unit to a beginning of a subsequent processing data unit, wherein the path routing comprises analyzing a plurality of signal-processing orders for the plurality of signal-processing modules and selecting based, at least in part, on a processing metric, one of the plurality of signal-processing orders,
• wherein signal-processing from the beginning of the subsequent processing data unit is performed with the changed circuit configuration information.