Computing Sorted Subsets for Data Processing in Communicating Software/Hardware Control Systems

Computing and filtering sorted subsets are frequently required in statistical data manipulation and control applications. The main objective is to extract subsets from large data sets in accordance with some criteria, for example, with the maximum and/or the minimum values in the entire set or within the predefined constraints. The paper suggests a new computation method enabling the indicated above problem to be solved in all programmable systems-on-chip from the Xilinx Zynq family that combine a dual-core Cortex-A9 processing unit and programmable logic linked by high-performance interfaces. The method involves highly parallel sorting networks and run-time filtering. The computations are done in communicating software, running in the processing unit, and hardware, implemented in the programmable logic. Practical applications of the proposed technique are also shown. The results of implementation and experiments clearly demonstrate significant speed-up of the developed software/hardware system comparing to alternative software implementations