Computer vision hardware using the Radon transform

A highly integrated VME-based board (based on parallel pipeline projection engine, PPPE, architecture) containing custom VLSI application-specific ICs (ASICs) that implements the forward and inverse Radon transforms in real time has been designed and fabricated. The board contains DSP microcomputers (AT&T DSP32C) that provide the necessary modularity and programming power to support custom Radon-transform ASICs. Parallel and pipelined processing occurs at both the IC and the board level. The ASIC that executes the highly computational- and I/O-intensive forward and inverse Radon transform algorithms has been designed and fabricated in a 1.6-micron scalable CMOS process. It operates at the required 10-MHz video rate, and consists of over 120000 transistors