A high-speed real-time image processing system based on System on a Programmable Chip (SOPC) of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was designed against the real-time requirements of complex algorithms for high-speed digital image signal and the existing problems that the system was updated in real time. The customized and efficient operating system Xilkernel was transplanted. And the methods of multi-thread programming, software simulation and real-time debugging online were applied. The real-time processing function of high-speed system has been achieved successfully. The operation of FPGA could be performed in parallel and the responsive time of its hardware could be accurate to nanosecond (ns) level. So the real-time processing properties of the system have more advantages over other processing platforms, and the real-time updates of the system without changing the hardware circuit have also been implemented.