TIP-TILTMIRROR CONTROL BASEDON FPGAFORAN ADAPTIVEOPTICSSYSTEM

themostlogical solution. However, whenheavydata Thispaper describes thedevelopment ofthetip-tilt mirror processing isneeded, somedoubts arise about theFPGAs control foranadaptive optics system basedontheuseof capabilities. Ourexperience isthat forapplications suchas FPGAtechnology instead ofusing thetraditional approach adaptive optics, wherealotofparallel processing isneeded, withDSPormicroprocessor. theuseofFPGAsbecomes averyattractive alternative, Theaimofthis workistoshowthat forthis kindof capable ofcarrying outalltheprocessing andeven application theFPGA technology isnotonlya viable outperforming theDSPbehavior whentheamountofdata solution butprobably also thebestoneinsomesituations, increases inanimportant way.TheFPGAsallowusto especially whenahugeamountofparallel data processingreach thebest trade-off foraparticular application between isneeded. Thiswill probably bethecaseofadaptive optics moreparallel processing andchiparea, i.e., wecanincrease systemsfor verylarge telescopes (1). thelevel ofparallelism attheexpense ofmoreFPGA A brief description ofthewholeadaptive optics system resources. will begiven although thepaper will focus especially onthe Oneofthedrawbacks argued bysomepeople against tip-tilt mirror control anditsimplementation withFPGAs. theuseofFPGAsinsystems suchasadaptive optics istheir A newversion ofthedeformable mirror control isalso difficulty toperform floating point operations. Inourcase being implemented inFPGAsandwill befinished inthe thatdidnotposeanyproblem atall. Justbyusingmore nearfuture. precision withinteger arithmetic we solved theproblem (with little areaincrease penalty). Theuseofspecial VHDL coresdesigned toworkwithallthefloating point