An efficient locally pipelined FFT processor

The fast Fourier transform (FFT) is a very important algorithm in digital signal processing. The locally pipelined (LPPL) architecture is an efficient structure for FFT processor designing in a real-time embedded system. Two basic building blocks, to the LPPL FFT processor, the butterfly in pipeline, and address generating, are discussed in this brief. Based on the "deep" feedback to butterfly-2, a novel approach for pipelined architecture, the radix-2 single-path deep delay feedback architecture is proposed. For length-N discrete Fourier transform computation, the dominant hardware requirements are minimal for complex multipliers log₄N-1 and adders 2log₄N. As an integral need of the LPPL FFT processor design, address generating and coefficient store-load structures are also presented.