Configurable computing and sonar processing - architectures and implementations

Sonar beamforming is an ideal application for reconfigurable computing due to its high available levels of parallelism, relatively low sample rates and modest word sizes. We describe a family of beamforming algorithms and their implementation using configurable computing technology. These include algorithms for time-delay, frequency-domain and matched field beamforming. Configurable computing architectures appropriate for each are described and the tradeoffs associated with the mapping of each to concrete platforms is discussed.