A study and comparison of COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) architectures

Most of the digital signal processing applications performs operations like multiplication, addition, square-root calculation, solving linear equations etc. The physical implementation of these operations consumes a lot of hardware and, software implementation consumes large memory. Even if they are implemented in hardware, they do not provide high speed, and due to this reason, even today the software implementation dominates hardware. For realizing operations from basic to very complex ones with less hardware, a Co-ordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) proves beneficial. It is capable of performing mathematical operations right from addition to highly complex functions with the help of arithmetic unit and shifters only. This paper gives a brief overview of various existing CORDIC architectures, their working principle, application domain and a comparison of these architectures. Different designs are available as per the target, i.e. high accuracy and precision, low area, low latency, hardware efficient, low power, reconfigurability, etc. that can be used as per the application in which the architecture needs to be employed

Embedded electronic systems driven by run-time reconfigurable hardware

Abstract This doctoral thesis addresses the design of embedded electronic systems based on run-time reconfigurable hardware technology –available through SRAM-based FPGA/SoC devices– aimed at contributing to enhance the life quality of the human beings. This work does research on the conception of the system architecture and the reconfiguration engine that provides to the FPGA the capability of dynamic partial reconfiguration in order to synthesize, by means of hardware/software co-design, a given application partitioned in processing tasks which are multiplexed in time and space, optimizing thus its physical implementation –silicon area, processing time, complexity, flexibility, functional density, cost and power consumption– in comparison with other alternatives based on static hardware (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). The design flow of such technology is evaluated through the prototyping of several engineering applications (control systems, mathematical coprocessors, complex image processors, etc.), showing a high enough level of maturity for its exploitation in the industry.Resumen Esta tesis doctoral abarca el diseño de sistemas electrónicos embebidos basados en tecnología hardware dinámicamente reconfigurable –disponible a través de dispositivos lógicos programables SRAM FPGA/SoC– que contribuyan a la mejora de la calidad de vida de la sociedad. Se investiga la arquitectura del sistema y del motor de reconfiguración que proporcione a la FPGA la capacidad de reconfiguración dinámica parcial de sus recursos programables, con objeto de sintetizar, mediante codiseño hardware/software, una determinada aplicación particionada en tareas multiplexadas en tiempo y en espacio, optimizando así su implementación física –área de silicio, tiempo de procesado, complejidad, flexibilidad, densidad funcional, coste y potencia disipada– comparada con otras alternativas basadas en hardware estático (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). Se evalúa el flujo de diseño de dicha tecnología a través del prototipado de varias aplicaciones de ingeniería (sistemas de control, coprocesadores aritméticos, procesadores de imagen, etc.), evidenciando un nivel de madurez viable ya para su explotación en la industria.Resum Aquesta tesi doctoral està orientada al disseny de sistemes electrònics empotrats basats en tecnologia hardware dinàmicament reconfigurable –disponible mitjançant dispositius lògics programables SRAM FPGA/SoC– que contribueixin a la millora de la qualitat de vida de la societat. S’investiga l’arquitectura del sistema i del motor de reconfiguració que proporcioni a la FPGA la capacitat de reconfiguració dinàmica parcial dels seus recursos programables, amb l’objectiu de sintetitzar, mitjançant codisseny hardware/software, una determinada aplicació particionada en tasques multiplexades en temps i en espai, optimizant així la seva implementació física –àrea de silici, temps de processat, complexitat, flexibilitat, densitat funcional, cost i potència dissipada– comparada amb altres alternatives basades en hardware estàtic (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). S’evalúa el fluxe de disseny d’aquesta tecnologia a través del prototipat de varies aplicacions d’enginyeria (sistemes de control, coprocessadors aritmètics, processadors d’imatge, etc.), demostrant un nivell de maduresa viable ja per a la seva explotació a la indústria

AREA AND POWER-EFFICIENT RECONFIGURABLE DIGITAL DOWN CONVERTER ON FPGA

This paper presents a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based digital down converter (DDC) that can reduce the bandwidth from about 70 MHz to 182.292 kHz. The proposed DDC consists of a polyphase COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) processor and a multirate filter. The advantage of polyphase CORDIC processor is to process with high sample rate input data and produces computational efficient noiseless baseband spectrum. The pipeline multirate filter works at a high clock speed. Moreover, the multirate filter generates a fractional sample rate factor using a cubic B-spline Farrow filter. The proposed DDC is coded with optimal hardware description language (HDL) and tested on Kintex-7 Xilinx FPGA as the target device. Experimental results indicate that the proposed design saves chip area, power consumption and operates at high speed without loss of any functionality. Additionally, the proposed design offers sufficient spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) and produces less than 1 Hz frequency resolution at the output

Design and Implementation of an RF Front-End for Software Defined Radios

Software Defined Radios have brought a major reformation in the design standards for radios, in which a large portion of the functionality is implemented through pro­ grammable signal processing devices, giving the radio the ability to change its op­ erating parameters to accommodate new features and capabilities. A software radio approach reduces the content of radio frequency and other analog components of the traditional radios and emphasizes digital signal processing to enhance overall receiver flexibility. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are a suitable technology for the hardware platform as they offer the potential of hardware-like performance coupled with software-like programmability. Software defined radio is a very broad field, encompassing the design of various technologies all the way from the antenna to RF, IF, and baseband digital design. The RF section primarily consists of analog hardware modules. The IF and baseband sections are primarily digital. It is the general process of the radio to convert the incoming signal from RF to IF and then IF to baseband for better signal processing system. In this thesis, some of major building blocks of a Software defined radio are de­ signed and implemented using FPGAs. The design of a Digital front end, which provides the bridge between the baseband and analog RF portions of a wireless receiver, is synthesized. The Digital front end receiver consists of a digital down converter(DDC) which in turn comprises of a direct digital frequency synthesizer (DDFS), a phase accumulator and a low pass filter. The signal processing block of the DDFS is executed using Co-ordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) iii Abstract algorithm. Cascaded-Integrator-Comb filters (CIC) are implemented for changing the sample rate of the incoming data. Application of a DDC includes software ra­ dios, multicarrier, multimode digital receivers, micro and pico cell systems,broadband data applications, instrumentation and test equipment and in-building wireless tele­ phony. Also, in this thesis, interfaces for connecting Texas Instruments high speed and high resolution Analog-to-Digital converters (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog converters (DAC) with Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs are also implemented and demonstrated

Parametrized Architecture for Hough Transform Recursive Evaluation

Paper submitted to International Workshop on Spectral Methods and Multirate Signal Processing (SMMSP), Barcelona, España, 2003.The Hough Transform (HT) is a useful technique in image segmentation, concretely for geometrical primitive detection. A Convolution-Based Recursive Method (CBRM) is presented for function evaluation. In this generic approach, calculations are carried out by an unique parametric formula which provides all function points by successive iterations. The case of combined trigonometric functions involved in the calculation of the HT is analyzed under this scope. An architecture for reconfigurable FPGA-based hardware, using Distributed Arithmetic (DA) implements the design. The CBRM implementation provides improvements such as memory and hardware resources saving, as well as a good balance between speed and error-dependable precision