Abstract:

A single embedded processor is difficult to efficiently complete the massive computing tasks such as image processing. Therefore, a set of SoC(System on Chip) with image processing function is designed based on FPGA(Field-Programmable Gate Array) and Coretx-M3 processor kernel. Based on Xilinx’s Kintex-7 FPGA and Arm’s Cortex-M3 kernel, the processor architecture is implemented on FPGA. The memory, bus system and basic peripherals are designed using IP(Internet Protocol) core and Verilog, and are connected to the processor through the bus. The image processing unit is designed, and the commonly used digital image processing

algorithm is mapped to the hardware description language. And the bus interface is designed to connect to the processor, providing the image processing capability for SoC. Based on Keil MDK tool and C language, the drivers for the peripheral and image processing unit of SoC are written, and the system function is simulated. And the digital image processing based on Matlab and the image processing unit in SoC are fully compared and tested by taking the binarization algorithm as an example. This image processing SoC has excellent performance and all the advantages of FPGA and SoC. The author has successfully developed a SoC with image processing function based on FPGA platform. The system is board-validated on Xilinx’s Kintex-7 family, model XC7K325TFFG676-2 FPGAs. This design reflects the high flexibility and efficiency of the system designed on FPGA platform, and provides a solution to solve the disadvantages of a single embedded processor that is difficult to efficiently complete the massive computing tasks such as image processing. The system is designed based on a reconfigurable platform, which can realize the customization of peripheral functions according to requirements, and has the advantage of higher flexibility.

Key words: field programmable gate array ( FPGA), Cortex-M3 processor, system on chip ( SoC), hardware acceleration