Mandelbrot fractal image generator example, single-process version for the Xilinx Virtex-4 APU platform.

Note: a pre-built, ready-to-load bitmap appropriate for the Xilinx ML403 development board (with the Virtex-4 FX12 FPGA) has been provided in the file Mand_Download.bit. This demonstration application requires an LCD display connected to the ML403 board.

Description

This program generates a Mandelbrot set, as described in Chapter 13 of Practical FPGA Programming in C. A sample image is shown below:

The algorithm examines all points in a subregion of the complex plane that has both real and imaginary parts between -2 and +2. The maximum number of iterations to determine if a given point converges is defined by MAX_ITERATIONS, which is defined in mand.h. Increase this value for more precision in the generated output.

The generator is implemented as a single Impulse C process. The process accepts configuration data defining the image subregion on a single input stream, and generates the resulting image as a stream of pixels on the output stream. The provided software test bench is compatible with the PPC405 processor, and communicates with the hardware process via the APU (Auxiliary Peripheral Unit) interface. See comments in mand_sw.c for more details.