Specification, hardware implementation and prototyping environment for image processing algorithms

For the purpose of developing efficient hardware for image processing algorithms, it is necessary to specify the computational solution of the algorithm, implement it with hardware, and finally prototype with emulator. Doing all this in separated development environments require a long design process, and difficulties in testing would arise. This paper presents one solution to this problem. Specification, implementation and prototyping processes are integrated. The Khoros environment of algorithm development, Synopsys VHDL toolset and a custom-build emulator board are combined to provide an efficient design and test environment.