The challenges of graphics processing in the avionics industry

Today's design of avionics is being pulled in two opposite directions — increased use of COTS and more requirements for certification. In particular, graphics processing has largely relied upon COTS devices even though the need for certification of GPUs has been amplified. This paper provides a background on graphics processing, summarizes the avionics requirements, surveys the options for graphics processing in avionics, and presents an architecture for an FPGA-based graphics processor.