This work describes the development of an image processing algorithm, the implementation of that algorithm as both a strictly hardware design and as a multi-core software design, and the side-by-side comparison of the two implementations. In the course of creating the multi-core software design, several improvements are made to the OpenFire soft core micro-processor that is used to create the multi-core network. The hardware and multi-core software implementations of the image processing algorithm are compared side-by-side in an FPGA-based test platform. Results show that although the strictly hardware implementation leads in terms of lower power consumption and very low area consumption, modification of and programming for the multi-core software implementation is simpler to perform. / Master of Science