FIR filter implementation for high-performance application in a high-end FPGA

Abstract

In this paper a high-performance application which uses multiple 48k tap FIR filters is presented. Due to its size, complexity and restrictions such as real-time, small latency and large memory bandwidth, the filter was implemented in UltraScale+, a high-end FPGA from Xilinx. The system was verified using a gold reference model written in C (high-level algorithm verification) and an analytical model calculated manually. The system was also tested using a development board and SystemVerilog (for register-transfer level and timing verification). The obtained results show a perfect match between the reference models and the actual output. The main novelty of the paper is the implementation of such an immense real-time signal processing system based on FIR filters consisting of over a million taps all together in a single design spread out across a chip containing three dies. Details about the resources allocated within the FPGA are also given in a table in the results chapter.