# 1. OVERVIEW AND INSTALLATION First things first, we will go over the hardware and software for these exercises. The board we will be using is from STMicroelectronics (often abbreviated as ST). ST provides many development boards that allow hobbyists, students, and even professionals prototype countless applications. In our exercises, we will be using the ST board to interface with a microphone for input and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for output. We will present these devices and our ST board in [Section 1.1](/dsp-labs/installation/hardware.md). In order to facilitate the development of applications, ST partners with third-party companies that provide integrated development environments (IDEs) for their boards. These tools can sometimes be overwhelming as they allow a lot of customization, but they are meant to help you! Attention to detail and reading the documentation will help you in your successful workflow. More on these tools and their installation will be covered in [Section 1.2](/dsp-labs/installation/software.md). In [Section 1.3](/dsp-labs/installation/instructions.md), we will combine the hardware and software to build our first project! --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://lcav.gitbook.io/dsp-labs/installation.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.