Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer is an iterative algorithm used in digital logic to compute trigonometric, hyperbolic, and logarithmic functions. It relies entirely on simple addition, subtraction, and bit-shift operations, making it extremely efficient for hardware implementation where hardware multipliers are unavailable or too costly. It is heavily used in digital signal processors and field-programmable gate arrays.
We implemented a CORDIC block in the FPGA to handle the phase calculations without burning through our logic slices.
CORDIC is a classic example of trading clock cycles for silicon area; it takes more cycles to compute a sine wave but requires vastly fewer logic gates than a lookup table or hardware multiplier.
Related terms
DSP
Digital signal processing involves manipulating continuous real-world signals in a digital format.
FPGA
A field-programmable gate array is an integrated circuit whose internal logic can be configured by the user.
Signal processing
The mathematical manipulation of physical data streams to filter, compress, or extract information.