Development of Algorithms and Verification Using High Level Languages

Simple applications such as a traffic light controller, etc., may be directly coded without a need for an algorithm. However, more complex applications such as video codecs, demodulators, etc., have involved algorithms at their core, which need to be adapted or developed depending upon how we wish to implement the system. The design methodology or strategy would depend upon whether we need to implement the system using software such as C or by a HDL such as Verilog. While developing algorithms for hardware implementation, we need to keep the actual hardware such as registers, counters, combination circuits, etc., in mind and, subsequently, design the architecture. Only then, we will be in a position to meet stringent specifications when the algorithm is converted into an actual working product. This is especially true for computationally intensive applications such as the discrete cosine transform (DCT), modulation/demodulation, etc., where we need to process the algorithms at real time rates. For instance, in video codecs conforming to MPEG 2 standards, the computationally intensive DCT algorithm needs to be computed at the rate of one coefficient per clock cycle running at the rate of 100 MHz or more if we are to meet the real time processing rate of 30 frames per second for a color picture of size: 1024 } 768 pixels or higher.