Video image processing with the Sonic architecture

Current industrial video-processing systems use a mixture of high-performance workstations and application-specific integrated circuits. However, video image processing in the professional broadcast environment requires more computational power and data throughput than most of today´s general-purpose computers can provide. In addition, using ASICs for video image processing is both inflexible and expensive. Configurable computing offers an appropriate alternative for broadcast video image editing and manipulation by combining the flexibility, programmability, and economy of general-purpose processors with the performance of dedicated ASICs. Sonic is a configurable computing system that performs real-time video image processing. The authors describe how it implements algorithms for two-dimensional linear transforms, fractal image generation, filters, and other video effects. Sonic´s flexible and scalable architecture contains configurable processing elements that accelerate software applications and support the use of plug-in software