FlexWAFE - a high-end real-time stream processing library for FPGAs

Digital film processing is characterized by a resolution of at least 2 K (2048times1536 pixels per frame at 30 bit/pixel and 24 pictures/s, data rate of 2.2 Gbit/s); higher resolutions of 4 K (8.8 Gbit/s) and even 8 K (35.2 Gbit/s) are on their way. Real-time processing at this data rate is beyond the scope of today's standard and DSP processors, and ASICs are not economically viable due to the small market volume. As an answer to these challenges, an FPGA-based approach was followed in the FlexFilm project. The multi-board, multi-FPGA hardware/software architecture is based on Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGAs which contain the reconfigurable image stream processing data path, large external SDRAM memories for multiple frame storage, and a PCI Express communication backbone network. Different applications are supported on a single hardware platform by using different FPGA configurations. This paper will focus on the FlexWAFE framework, a component library consisting of parameterizable modules for real-time stream processing including memory and communication controllers. Some of the library blocks' parameters are set at synthesis time via VHDL generics, while others are run-time configurable. This combination allows some flexibility without sacrificing FPGA area or speed.