DICE (the DSPCAD Integrative Command Line Environment) is a package of utilities that facilitates efficient management of software projects. Key areas of emphasis in DICE are cross-platform operation, support for projects that integrate heterogeneous programming languages, and support for applying and integrating different kinds of design and testing methodologies. The package is being developed at the University of Maryland to facilitate the research and teaching of methods for implementation, testing, evolution, and revision of engineering software. The package is also being developed as a foundation for developing experimental research software for techniques and tools in the area of computer-aided design (CAD) of digital signal processing (DSP) systems. The package is intended for cross-platform operation, and is currently being developed and used actively on the Windows (equipped with Cygwin), Solaris, and Linux platforms.

This report provides an introduction to DICE, and provides background on some of the key features in DICE. This report also gives a brief introduction to dicelang, which is a plug-in package for DICE that provides additional utilities, libraries, and tools for managing software projects in specific programming languages.