<p>The Fast Factorized Back Pro jection (FFBP) algorithm is a computationally efficient </p><p>algorithm for image formation in a Very High Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (VHF </p><p>SAR) system. In this report an investigation of the feasibility of using an FPGA with a </p><p>hard CPU core to calculate the FFBP in real-time has been done. Two System on a Chip </p><p>designs for this task have been proposed for calculating the FFBP. A simplified version of </p><p>the FFBP has also been implemented in Matlab and used during this pro ject. The result </p><p>is that the computationally intensive parts, such as index generating and interpolation </p><p>calculations, should be implemented in the logic part of the FPGA and the CPU should </p><p>handle scheduling. This kind of modular system is easy to maintain and upgrade.</p>

The Fast Factorized Back Pro jection (FFBP) algorithm is a computationally efficient algorithm for image formation in a Very High Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (VHF SAR) system. In this report an investigation of the feasibility of using an FPGA with a hard CPU core to calculate the FFBP in real-time has been done. Two System on a Chip designs for this task have been proposed for calculating the FFBP. A simplified version of the FFBP has also been implemented in Matlab and used during this pro ject. The result is that the computationally intensive parts, such as index generating and interpolation calculations, should be implemented in the logic part of the FPGA and the CPU should handle scheduling. This kind of modular system is easy to maintain and upgrade.

<p>Synthetic antenna aperture (SAR) is a pulses focusing airborne radar which can achieve high resolution radar image. A number of image process algorithms have been developed for this kind of radar, but the calculation burden is still heavy. So the image processing of SAR is normally performed “off-line”.</p><p>The Fast Factorized Back Projection (FFBP) algorithm is considered as a computationally efficient algorithm for image formation in SAR, and several applications have been implemented which try to make the process “on-line”.</p><p>CELL Broadband Engine is one of the newest multi-core-processor jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM. CELL is good at parallel computation and floating point numbers, which all fit the demands of SAR image formation.</p><p>This thesis is going to implement FFBP algorithm on CELL Broadband Engine, and compare the results with pre-projects. In this project, we try to make it possible to perform SAR image formation in real-time.</p>

Synthetic antenna aperture (SAR) is a pulses focusing airborne radar which can achieve high resolution radar image. A number of image process algorithms have been developed for this kind of radar, but the calculation burden is still heavy. So the image processing of SAR is normally performed “off-line”. The Fast Factorized Back Projection (FFBP) algorithm is considered as a computationally efficient algorithm for image formation in SAR, and several applications have been implemented which try to make the process “on-line”. CELL Broadband Engine is one of the newest multi-core-processor jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM. CELL is good at parallel computation and floating point numbers, which all fit the demands of SAR image formation. This thesis is going to implement FFBP algorithm on CELL Broadband Engine, and compare the results with pre-projects. In this project, we try to make it possible to perform SAR image formation in real-time.