An ASIC design for real-time image processing in industrial applications

In this paper we present the design of an ASIC chip for real-time image processing in industrial applications. The chip is a module of a system for the automatic surface inspection of mechanical parts: it implements the feed-forward phase of a neural network model (multi-layer perceptron with local connections) tuned to the specific application. The design has been performed in 0.7 /spl mu/m CMOS technology using an approach based on high level transformations of the VHDL specifications. Special emphasis was given to achieve real-time speed. As a result, the architecture is based on a deep pipeline and the performance is beyond the real-time specifications.<>