Software-based ultrasound imaging system

A front-end unit configured to be electrically connected to a transducer, the front-end unit comprising:

• an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter configured to convert an RF signal transmitted from the transducer in real time into a digital signal;
• a buffer memory configured to buffer an output of the A/D converter for each channel;
• and
• a processing circuit configured to schedule channel-specific data to be buffered in the buffer memory in a round-robin scheme and to transmit the channel-specific data to a page-locked area in the system memory of the host PC via a data bus regardless of a data request from the host PC.

A host PC for an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that includes a front-end unit configured to be electrically connected to a transducer and a host PC configured to receive channel data from the front-end unit via a data bus and to process the channel data, the host PC comprising:

• a system memory;
• at least one parallel core processor;
• and
• a central processing unit (CPU) configured to page-lock a predetermined area (hereinafter, “first area”) in the system memory, wherein
• the front-end unit is configured to perform a transmission of the channel data to the first area in a direct memory access (DMA) scheme, and
• the parallel core processor is configured to access the first area in the DMA scheme and to perform at least a part of processes for generating an ultrasound image, in a multi-thread processing scheme.

A method for generating an ultrasound image by an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that includes a front-end unit configured to be electrically connected to a transducer and a host PC configured to receive channel data from the front-end unit via a data bus and to process the channel data, the method comprising:

• page-locking, by the host PC, a predetermined area (hereinafter, “first area”) in a system memory;
• acquiring, by the front-end unit, the channel data by using the transducer;
• transmitting, by the front-end unit, the channel data to the first area;
• and
• performing processes for generating an ultrasound image based on the channel data by using a central processing unit (CPU) and a parallel core processor included in the host PC, wherein
• the front-end unit and the parallel core processor are configured to simultaneously access the first area in a direct memory access (DMA) scheme.