Virtual hardware for graphics applications using FPGAs

Author

Singh, Satnam ; Bellec, Pierre

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Glasgow Univ., UK

fYear

1994

fDate

10-13 Apr 1994

Firstpage

49

Lastpage

58

Abstract

The suitability of FPGA devices for implementing graphics algorithms is analysed by a series of experiments. The performance of simple and complicated graphics algorithms on two kinds of FPGAs are compared with the performance of existing custom graphics chips and against general-purpose processors with specialised instruction sets. Various architectures for incorporating FPGA-based systems into graphics workstations are discussed. Finally, a new design method (based on virtual memory) is presented that exploits the dynamically reconfigurable nature of FPGAs

Keywords

computer graphic equipment; computer graphics; instruction sets; logic arrays; performance evaluation; reconfigurable architectures; virtual storage; workstations; FPGA devices; architecture; custom graphics chips; design method; dynamically reconfigurable arrays; general purpose processors; graphics algorithms; graphics workstations; performance; specialised instruction sets; virtual hardware; virtual memory; Algorithm design and analysis; Application specific integrated circuits; Design automation; Field programmable gate arrays; Graphics; Hardware; Instruction sets; Rendering (computer graphics); Solids; Workstations;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

FPGAs for Custom Computing Machines, 1994. Proceedings. IEEE Workshop on

Conference_Location

Napa Valley, CA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-5490-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FPGA.1994.315598

Filename

315598