Implementing medical CT algorithms on stand-alone FPGA based systems using an efficient workflow with SysGen and Simulink

Xilinx and Mathworks jointly proposed System Generator (SysGen) and Simulink to accelerate development of DSP (digital signal processing) style applications on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips. However, most of developments with Simulink and SysGen end at simulation stage without complete stand-alone implementation on FPGA since these tools do not come up with sufficient IO system libraries. In this paper, we present the process of implementing a full system to reconstruct CT (computed tomography) images on FPGA using Simulink and SysGen. In this process, we solve technical issues regarding algorithm mapping, design of additional modules, system IO library and resource allocation. Our experience will be taken as useful reference for researchers working on FPGA applications and high resolution medical image applications. © 2010 IEEE