Design for Embedded Image Processing on FPGAs, 2nd Edition

3Design Process

The process of developing an embedded image processing application involves four steps or stages (Gribbon et al., 2007). The relationship between these is illustrated in Figure 3.1. The problem specification clearly defines the problem in such a way that the success of the proposed solution can be measured. The algorithm development step determines the sequence of image processing operations required to transform the expected input images into the desired result. Architecture selection involves determining the computational structure of the processors that are required to execute the algorithm at both the application and operation levels. Finally, system implementation is the process of mapping the algorithm onto the selected architecture, including construction and testing of the final system.

It has been observed that the successful development of complex algorithms on field‐programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) is sensitive to the quality of the implementation (Herbordt et al., 2007). To gain a significant speed improvement over a software implementation, it is necessary that a significant fraction of the algorithm be parallelised. Often, the speedup obtained from implementing an application on an FPGA is disappointing. One of the main factors is that it is not merely sufficient to port an algorithm from software onto an FPGA implementation. To obtain an effective and efficient solution, it is necessary for the computation and the computational architecture to ...