A High-Performance FIR Filter Architecture for Fixed and Reconfigurable Applications

Transpose form finite-impulse response (FIR) filters are inherently pipelined and support multiple constant multiplications (MCM) technique that results in significant saving of computation. However, transpose form configuration does not directly support the block processing unlike direct-form configuration. In this paper, we explore the possibility of realization of block FIR filter in transpose form configuration for area-delay efficient realization of large order FIR filters for both fixed and reconfigurable applications. Based on a detailed computational analysis of transpose form configuration of FIR filter, we have derived a flow graph for transpose form block FIR filter with optimized register complexity. A generalized block formulation is presented for transpose form FIR filter. We have derived a general multiplier-based architecture for the proposed transpose form block filter for reconfigurable applications. A low-complexity design using the MCM scheme is also presented for the block implementation of fixed FIR filters. The proposed structure involves significantly less area-delay product (ADP) and less energy per sample (EPS) than the existing block implementation of direct-form structure for medium or large filter lengths, while for the short-length filters, the block implementation of direct-form FIR structure has less ADP and less EPS than the proposed structure. Application-specific integrated circuit synthesis result shows that the proposed structure for block size 4 and filter length 64 involves 42% less ADP and 40% less EPS than the best available FIR filter structure proposed for reconfigurable applications. For the same filter length and the same block size, the proposed structure involves 13% less ADP and 12.8% less EPS than that of the existing direct-form block FIR structure.