FPGA implementation of a parameterized Fourier synthesizer

Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) offers advantages for many applications, particularly where missions are complex and time performance is critical. For small-production digital acoustic synthesizers, FPGA can achieve the above-mentioned tighter system requirements with low total system costs on single chip. In this manuscript, a real-time acoustic synthesizer is implemented using Fourier series algorithm on Altera's Cyclone II FPGA chip. This work emphasizes systematic designs and parallel computations. The proposed system includes a flexible processor and a parallel parameterized acoustic module. On one hand, the Nios II embedded processor, which is relatively low-speed component, is used to generate commands and configure high-speed acoustic module parameters. On the other hand, acoustic module which should require high-speed components contains 4 parallel architectures to gain high-speed simultaneous calculus of 4 independent digital timbres. Every timbre is equivalent to 16 parallel high-precision harmonic channels with 0.3 % frequency error. Experimental results corroborate the fact that a single FPGA chip can achieve complex missions and attain real-time performances.