Questions

Answer the following questions to test your knowledge of this chapter:

1. List the advantages of using an FPGA-based SoC to implement a system with the heavy use of mathematical algorithms in a DSP application.
2. Describe the process of deciding whether offloading the DSP computation to the FPGA logic is the correct decision to make. You can refer to the hardware acceleration methodologies described in the previous chapters.
3. Define SIMD and describe how it can improve the software runtime performance and reduce power consumption.
4. List some of the challenges you may face if you decide to use a CPU SIMD feature.
5. What does NEON refer to in the ARM architecture and how wide are the datasets its instruction set can operate on?
6. How could you extend the NEON capabilities of the Cortex-A9 CPU in a Zynq-7000 SoC FPGA? Name the main logic resources you would use to achieve this.
7. Draw a simple SoC diagram where you offload heavy DSP algorithms to the FPGA...