An FPGA-GPU Heterogeneous System and Implementation for On-Board Remote Sensing Data Processing

In resource-constrained space environments, energy-efficient and high-performance processors like Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are widely utilized for on-board data processing. However, the variety of tasks in space missions, including remote sensing data pre-processing and processing, reveals the limitations of single processors. To address this, we suggest a heterogeneous system that combines FPGAs with embedded Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) TX2 for efficient remote sensing data pre-processing and processing. Additionally, to overcome the challenges in data transfer between the FPGA and TX2, we utilized High-Level Synthesis (HLS) to design a dedicated IP for efficient data transfer between the FPGA and TX2 using PCIe protocol. This method enhances data transfer speeds and enables TX2 to manage address mapping in the Double Data Rate (DDR) memory. Our system successfully completes remote sensing data processing by integrating these elements.