Teaching heterogeneous computer architectures using smart camera systems

Although in recent years multi-core processors have left their academic niche and became more and more popular, the need for energy efficient and powerful devices could not been fulfilled completely. Therefore, the focus in research as well as in industry is nowadays drawn to new architecture concepts especially heterogeneous computing architectures. Unfortunately, the design and programming of these architectures is more complex than standard processing solutions. Hence, it is essential to teach current students, how the systems of tomorrow must be constructed and programmed. In this paper we are presenting our experience with a lab focusing on the design and programming of heterogeneous computing architectures for smart cameras. We have chosen this example since image processing systems can heavily benefit from heterogeneous architectures utilizing different architectural concepts for different image processing operators. Moreover, using smart camera applications from industry are a high motivation for students. Therefore, the course contains the implementation of a complete image processing application beginning from data acquisition of the sensor to image pre- and post-processing and finally to the usage of an embedded operating system for integrating the camera in real industrial scenarios. Our student evaluation show, that all participants were able to build a heterogeneous system and understand and evaluate the benefits of these architecture.