Em Photonics, Inc.

James P Durbano

Dennis W Prather

John R Humphrey

Fernando E Ortiz

Eric Kelmelis

Peterson F Curt

An accelerator for the speckle atmospheric compensation algorithm may enable real-time speckle processing of video feeds that may enable the speckle algorithm to be applied in numerous real-time applications. The accelerator may be implemented in various forms, including hardware, software, and/or machine-readable media.

Method and system for enabling real-time speckle processing using hardware platforms

A hardware-based acceleration platform for computational electromagnetic algorithms, specifically the finite-difference time-domain ('FDTD') method, comprises reformulating the FDTD algorithm in order to make it more hardware friendly. This reformulation makes use of split fields at every node in the mesh, and combines total- and scattered-field formulations into a single, hybrid formulation. By precomputing coefficients for the nodes in the mesh, it is possible for a single set of equations to support plane waves, point sources, PML ABCs, and PEC walls. In the method sources are determined by means of a lookup table, rather than through direct hardware computations. All of these modifications enable the hardware designer to much more easily develop an FDTD accelerator.

Reformulation of the finite-difference time-domain algorithm for hardware-based accelerators

Disclosed herein is an organization of cache memory for hardware acceleration of the FDTD method. The organization of cache memory for hardware acceleration of the FDTD method provides a substantial speedup to the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm when implemented in a piece of digital hardware. The organization of cache memory for hardware acceleration of the FDTD method utilizes a very high bandwidth dual-port on-chip memory in a particular way. By creating many small banks of internal memory and arranging them carefully, all data dependencies can be statically wired. This allows for a many-fold speedup over SRAM-based solutions and removes the burden of data dependence calculation that streaming SDRAM-based solutions must perform.

Organization of cache memory for hardware acceleration of the finite-difference time-domain method

A computer hardware configuration for performing the pseudo-spectral time-domain (PSTD) method on data. The hardware configuration includes a forward fast Fourier transform (FFT) unit that calculates a forward fast Fourier transform (FFT) from the data, and a complex multiplication unit that receives the FFT-processed data and calculates a spatial derivative in the frequency domain from the FFT-processed data. The hardware configuration further includes an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit that converts the spatial derivative in the frequency domain from the complex multiplication unit into the time domain, and a computation engine that solves a PSTD equation based upon the spatial derivative in the time domain received from the IFFT unit.

Hardware implementation of the pseudo-spectral time-domain method

The present invention is directed to an apparatus and methods that facilitate implementation of a practical Finite-Difference-Time-Domain (FDTD) hardware accelerator. The apparatus and methods of the present invention increase speed, reduce memory requirements, and/or simplify a FDTD hardware implementation. This is accomplished by providing one, some, or all of the following: a reformulated FDTD method to simplify the hardware implementation; a memory look-up table (MLUT) to decrease memory requirements; customized, floating-point arithmetic units optimized for speed to decrease execution time; a memory switching unit (MSU) that coordinates multiple memory reads and writes from/to multiple random access memories (RAMs) to simplify control; a data dependence unit (DDU) that determines all dependencies associated with a given calculation to simplify control; and/or a control unit based on a global counter to simplify control.

Growing community of inventors

Ridley Park, PA, United States of America

James P Durbano