A survey of CORDIC algorithm for FPGA based computers

The current trend back toward hardware intensive signal processing has uncovered a relative lack of understanding of hardware signal processing architectures. Many hardware efficient algorithms exist, but these are generally not weil known due to the dominance of software systems over the past quarter century. Among these algorithms is a set of shift-add algorithms collectively known as CORDIC for computing a wide range of functions including certain trigonometric, hyperbolic, linear and logarithmic functions. While there are numerous articles covering various aspects of CORDIC algorithms, very few survey more than one or two, and even fewer concentrate on implementation in FPGAs. This paper attempts to survey commonly used functions that may be accomplished using a CORDIC architecture, explain how the algorithms work, and explore implementation specific to FPGAs. 1.1 Keywords CORDIC, sine, cosine, vector magnitude, polar conversio