EXCALIBUR Hardware and Enabling Software FPGA Testbed
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Wednesday, June 30, 2021 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM · 1 hr. (Africa/Abidjan)
Exascale Systems
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Contributors:
Abstract:
Whilst CPUs and GPUs are currently the dominant hardware for latest generation supercomputers, it is important to consider the role that other technologies might play in future exascale systems. This is especially true given the slow down in Moore's law, and one such possible technology is that of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which are reconfigurable architectures that can implement a custom architecture for an application. Such tailored execution of one's code is often more performant and efficient than abstracted software execution on CPUs or GPUs. The additional energy efficiency and high bandwidth networking are also important factors, and combined these properties have the potential to make FPGAs a game changer for a number of HPC applications at the exascale. Furthermore, in recent years the FPGA hardware and programming environments have improved significantly, making them a far more realistic proposition than before for accelerating HPC applications.
The EXCALIBUR Hardware and Enabling Software programme has funded an FPGA testbed for scientists across the world to explore the role that FPGAs can play in accelerating their applications. Freely available (there are no user access costs), in addition to comprising the latest generation hardware technology, this project also involves a significant amount of enabling software effort which aims to make FPGAs much more a question of software development rather than hardware design. Furthermore focus will also be placed upon user training and, in collaboration with application developers, publicising the role of FPGAs via case-studies of codes which have been ported to the testbed.Visit the Project Website
Abstract:
Whilst CPUs and GPUs are currently the dominant hardware for latest generation supercomputers, it is important to consider the role that other technologies might play in future exascale systems. This is especially true given the slow down in Moore's law, and one such possible technology is that of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which are reconfigurable architectures that can implement a custom architecture for an application. Such tailored execution of one's code is often more performant and efficient than abstracted software execution on CPUs or GPUs. The additional energy efficiency and high bandwidth networking are also important factors, and combined these properties have the potential to make FPGAs a game changer for a number of HPC applications at the exascale. Furthermore, in recent years the FPGA hardware and programming environments have improved significantly, making them a far more realistic proposition than before for accelerating HPC applications.
The EXCALIBUR Hardware and Enabling Software programme has funded an FPGA testbed for scientists across the world to explore the role that FPGAs can play in accelerating their applications. Freely available (there are no user access costs), in addition to comprising the latest generation hardware technology, this project also involves a significant amount of enabling software effort which aims to make FPGAs much more a question of software development rather than hardware design. Furthermore focus will also be placed upon user training and, in collaboration with application developers, publicising the role of FPGAs via case-studies of codes which have been ported to the testbed.Visit the Project Website
