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FPGA-Based DSP

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Abstract

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) offer an excellent platform for embedded DSP systems when real-time processing beyond that which multiprocessor platforms can achieve is required, and volumes are too small to justify the costs of developing a custom chip. This niche role is due to the ability of FPGA to host custom computing architectures, tailored to the application. Modern FPGAs play host to large quantities of heterogeneous logic, computational and memory components which can only be effectively exploited by heterogeneous processing architectures composed of microprocessors with custom co-processors, parallel software processor and dedicated hardware units. The complexity of these architectures, coupled with the need for frequent regeneration of the implementation with each new application makes FPGA system design a highly complex and unique design problem. The key to success in this process is the ability of the designer to best exploit the FPGA resources in a custom architecture, and the ability of design tools to quickly and efficiently generate these architectures. This chapter describes the state-of-the-art in FPGA device resources, computing architectures, and design tools which support the DSP system design process.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Based on comparison of Virtex®6 XC6VSX475T with assumed clock rate of 500 MHz and Texas Instruments TMS3206474 DSP.

  2. 2.

    Xilinx have proposed a different, and specific kind of device, an Extensible Processing Platform, as their SoC variant. This is manifest in the Xilinx Zynq® product range, not considered in this document.

  3. 3.

    Metrics are approximated and assuming an FPGA operating frequency of 600 MHz.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    John McAllister

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  1. John McAllister
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Correspondence to John McAllister .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Electrical and, University of Maryland, A. V. Williams Bldg. 2311, College Park, 20742, Maryland, USA

    Shuvra S. Bhattacharyya

  2. Leiden Inst. Advanced Computer Science, Leiden Embedded Research Center, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 1, Leiden, 2333 CA, Netherlands

    Ed F. Deprettere

  3. Software for Systems on Silicon, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, Aachen, 52056, Germany

    Rainer Leupers

  4. , Department of Pervasive Computing, Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, Tampere, 33720, Finland

    Jarmo Takala

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McAllister, J. (2013). FPGA-Based DSP. In: Bhattacharyya, S., Deprettere, E., Leupers, R., Takala, J. (eds) Handbook of Signal Processing Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6859-2_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6859-2_22

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