An evolvable hardware system in Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA

Abstract

In this paper, a new circuit architecture for image filter evolution is proposed. The evolvable system is based on the implementation of a search algorithm in the PowerPC processor which is available in Xilinx Virtex II Pro Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Candidate filters are evaluated in a domain-specific virtual reconfigurable circuit implemented using a reconfigurable logic of the same FPGA. As the PowerPC processor enables to execute more sophisticated search algorithms than an original solely circuit-based solution by Martinek and Sekanina, a higher performance can be obtained. In the FPGA, a resulting human-competitive filter can be evolved in 15 sec in average.