This thesis describes the implementation of a system that can generate two types of image pyramids: the Gaussian pyramid and the Laplacian pyramid. These have been developed using the SPLASH II attached processor, which is a reconfigurable platform based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). The design was first modeled in VHDL, and was then simulated and synthesized to a gate list using a SPLASH II simulator and the Synopsys synthesis tool. The gate list was then mapped onto Xilinx XC4010 FPGA architectures.

Three complete designs have been developed to generate pyramids on SPLASH II: two for generating the Gaussian pyramid, and one for generating the Laplacian pyramid. One of the designs produces a complete image pyramid within one image frame time of 33 ms. The other two designs produce complete pyramids within two frame times. All three designs can be used as pipeline stages within a larger image processing system.