The detection system based on Digital Signal Processing has been developed at ORNL and applied to study proton radioactivity. Novel concepts of the Digital Spectroscopy are presented. They have been applied in experiments difficult or impossible to perform with standard systems which combine shaping amplifiers with analog‐to‐digital converters. The DSP features, such as, trigger‐less operation, pulse shape recording and pulse shape based triggering schemes, led to successful measurements of the fine structure in the proton decay of145Tm and141Ho and to observation of the two‐proton emission in45Fe. © 2003 American Institute of Physics