Comparing an FPGA to a Cell for an Image Processing Application

Modern advancements in configurable hardware, most notably Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), have provided an exciting opportunity to discover the parallel nature of modern image processing algorithms. On the other hand, PlayStation3 (PS3) game consoles contain a multicore heterogeneous processor known as the Cell, which is designed to perform complex image processing algorithms at a high performance. In this research project, our aim is to study the differences in performance of a modern image processing algorithm on these two hardware platforms. In particular, Iris Recognition Systems have recently become an attractive identification method because of their extremely high accuracy. Iris matching, a repeatedly executed portion of a modern iris recognition algorithm, is parallelized on an FPGA system and a Cell processor. We demonstrate a 2.5 times speedup of the parallelized algorithm on the FPGA system when compared to a Cell processor-based version.

# Telecommunication # Electronics

Robert W. Ives, Randy P. Broussard, Hau Ngo, et al. (2010). "Comparing an FPGA to a Cell for an Image Processing Application". EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/764838