Digital Signal Processing and

Field Programmable Gate

Arrays
By: Peter Holko

What are FPGAs

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are

programmable semiconductor devices that are based
around a matrix of configurable logic blocks (CLBs)
connected via programmable interconnects.

Background

First FPGA was released in 1985 by Xilinx with a mere 1,000

logic gates primarily used for interconnections, buses and
other peripherals, by 2006 it had increased by over 10,000
times.

FPGAs allow for highly parallel processing through inherent

hardware nature.

Xilinx and Altera are the two leaders in FPGA and hold over
90% of the market.

Markets for intensive DSP applications include: wireless

communications, video/image processing, and
aerospace/defense industry.

Co-processing with a FPGA

FPGA co-processors are an extremely cost-effective means of
off-loading computationally intensive algorithms from a DSP
processor.

FPGA Coprocessor for WiMAX

Baseband Processing

FPGA Coprocessor for High-Definition

H.264 Encoding

DSP and FPGA

FPGAs Parallel Approach to DSP Enables Higher
Computational
Throughput
Consider a 256-tap FIR filter:

Conventional DSP Processor Serial

Implementation

FPGA Fully parallel implementation

Flexibility of FPGAs
Different ways of implementing four multiplyaccumulate (MAC) functions.

FFT Co-Processing
Example

FFT co-processor implemented within an Altera Stratix FPGA

and connected to a Texas Instruments DSP via the 32-bit
external memory interface (EMIF)
Develop co-processor from intellectual property (IP) such as
FFT MegaCore
FFT implementation with only the TI DSP
processor
TI DPS running at 720 MHz completed the 1024point 16-bit FFT in 9.06 s

FPGA Co-processor implementation

At 278 MHz completed the transform in only
FFT Co-processor on Stratic
FPGA

4.64 s

DSP Development
For the DSP-only approach, functions like FIR
filters, FFTs and Correlators are available as prebuilt, assembly optimized, C-callable library
functions.
Challenges arise while trying to optimize the
performance of a function for a particular DSP
requiring an in-depth knowledge of the processor
architecture.
However, DSP designers in general are more
comfortable with the DSP-only approach due to
ease of implementation.

FPGA Development
FPGA co-processor approach requires hardware
knowledge to assemble the various components
of the FPGA co-processing system (EMIF/FIFO
interface, transmit and receive FIFO buffers, and
co-processing function).
The availability of architecturally optimized prebuilt IP functions from FPGA vendors like Altera
& Xilinx aid in the implementation of coprocessors

Hardware Description Language

PROCESS (clk)
BEGIN
IF (clk'event and clk = '1') THEN
a_reg <= (a);
b_reg <= (b);
pdt_reg <= a_reg * b_reg;
adder_out <= adder_out + pdt_reg;
END IF;
END process;
accum_out <= (adder_out);

Performance of FPGA
versus DSP
BDTIs benchmark is based on a simplified OFDM
(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)
receiver

DSP processor implementation

FPGA Implementation of
BDTI Benchmark
Exploits three-levels of parallelism:
Within each receiver block, multiple operations are
executed concurrently
All receiver blocks operate concurrently
Multiple receiver modules are used on the same
chip
FPGA implementation on Xilinx
Virtex-4 of a single receiver
module

BDTI Benchmarks

Performance Evolution of
FPGA versus DSP
Processors

Conclusions

FPGAs can out perform DSP processors on certain DSP tasks;

computation intensive, highly parallelizable tasks
DSP processors have the advantage for development
infrastructure, time-to-market, developer familiarity
DSP processors are still easier to use
Many engineers possess DSP processor development skills
Ultimate speed is not always the first priority
Combination of FPGA and DSP processor is an excellent
solution if performance requirements cannot be met by the
processor alone
The Best architecture depends on the requirements of the
applications

References

The benefits of FPGA coprocessing

http://www.dsp-fpga.com/pdfs/Xilinx.RG06.pdf
Implementing FFT in an FPGA Co-Processor
http://www.altera.com/literature/cp/gspx/fft-in-fpga.pdf
FPGAs rapidly replacing high-performance DSP capability
http://www.dsp-fpga.com/articles/ekas/
DSP Co-Processing in FPGAs:
Embedding High-Performance Low-Cost DSP Functions
http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/whitepapers/wp212.pdf
Comparing FPGAs and DSPs for High-Performance DSP Applications
http://www.bdti.com/articles/20061101_gspx06_fpgas.pdf
FPGAs as Coprocessors for DSP Applications
http://www.altera.com/technology/dsp/devices/fpga/dspfpga_coprocessor.html
Increase Bandwidth in Medical & Industrial Applications With FPGA CoProcessors
http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp_use_of_pld_as_cp5.pdf