Bringing Field-Programmable Gate Arrays to the Masses: Towards a Design Eco-System

将现场可编程门阵列推向大众：迈向设计生态系统

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-04683
• 负责人: Wilton, Steven
• 金额: $ 4.23万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=637186
• 关键词: Bringing; Field; Programmable; Gate; Arrays

For decades, improvements in integrated circuit (IC) technology have provided dramatic increases in computing power, enabling applications such as the low-cost high-speed internet and mobile computing. New applications are on the horizon, including embedded machine-learning algorithms, extreme “big data” computation problems, and applications associated with the emerging internet of things. However, advances in many of these important applications are being held back by the lack of sufficient power-efficient and cost-effective computing hardware capabilities. Due to the increased cost and technical challenges in manufacturing smaller and faster transistors, we can no longer rely on improvements in semiconductor technology to provide the required computing horsepower. This has led to a revolution in the computing industry. Many researchers now see hardware accelerators, and in particular accelerators based on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), as a disruptive technology that can provide power-efficient computing capacity necessary for many of these emerging applications. For years, FPGAs have been extremely successful as low-cost, low-risk replacements for custom integrated circuits. However, as evidenced by Intel’s recent acquisition of Altera, and Microsoft’s efforts to bring FPGA technology to the “cloud”, FPGAs are now poised to emerge as mainstream software accelerators.

几十年来，集成电路（IC）技术的改进提供了计算能力的显著增加，从而实现了诸如低成本高速互联网和移动的计算的应用。新的应用即将出现，包括嵌入式机器学习算法，极端的“大数据”计算问题，以及与新兴物联网相关的应用。然而，这些重要应用中的许多应用的进步由于缺乏足够的功率高效和成本高效的计算硬件能力而受到阻碍。由于制造更小更快的晶体管的成本和技术挑战的增加，我们不能再依赖半导体技术的改进来提供所需的计算能力。这引发了计算机行业的一场革命。许多研究人员现在将硬件加速器，特别是基于现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）的加速器视为一种颠覆性技术，可以为许多新兴应用提供所需的高能效计算能力。多年来，FPGA作为定制集成电路的低成本、低风险替代品一直非常成功。然而，正如英特尔最近收购Altera以及微软将FPGA技术带到“云”的努力所证明的那样，FPGA现在有望成为主流软件加速器。