HIGH-SPEED 2-D CONVOLUTION WITH A CUSTOM COMPUTING MACHINE

Custom computing machines, a class of computational platforms consisti ng of reconfigurable functional units with reconfigurable interconnect ion networks, provide a middle-ground between special-purpose hardware , which provide high execution speed, and general-purpose computers, w hich offer flexibility. The Splash-2 system, one such custom computing machine, is an experimental platform for complex computations requiri ng the high speed of special-purpose hardware. The reconfigurability a nd modularity of Splash-2, along with automated synthesis tools, allow for rapid, staged development of applications. This paper demonstrate s the applicability of Splash-2 to the image-processing area and gives an introduction to the programming environment used in developing app lications. An example image-processing application based upon two-dime nsional convolution is described and the operating procedures of custo m computing machines are presented. Also presented are the details of directly implementing two-dimensional convolution in a straight-forwar d, systolic fashion in reconfigurable hardware.