7,255 research outputs found
Improving reconfigurable systems reliability by combining periodical test and redundancy techniques: a case study
This paper revises and introduces to the field of reconfigurable computer systems, some traditional techniques used in the fields of fault-tolerance and testing of digital circuits. The target area is that of on-board spacecraft electronics, as this class of application is a good candidate for the use of reconfigurable computing technology. Fault tolerant strategies are used in order for the system to adapt itself to the severe conditions found in space. In addition, the paper describes some problems and possible solutions for the use of reconfigurable components, based on programmable logic, in space applications
Platform for Testing and Evaluation of PUF and TRNG Implementations in FPGAs
Implementation of cryptographic primitives like
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and True Random Number
Generators (TRNGs) depends significantly on the underlying
hardware. Common evaluation boards offered by FPGA vendors
are not suitable for a fair benchmarking, since they have different
vendor dependent configuration and contain noisy switching
power supplies. The proposed hardware platform is primary
aimed at testing and evaluation of cryptographic primitives
across different FPGA and ASIC families. The modular platform
consists of a motherboard and exchangeable daughter board
modules. These are designed to be as simple as possible to
allow cheap and independent evaluation of cryptographic blocks
and namely PUFs. The motherboard is based on the Microsemi
SmartFusion 2 SoC FPGA. It features a low-noise power supply,
which simplifies evaluation of vulnerability to the side channel
attacks. It provides also means of communication between the
PC and the daughter module. Available software tools can be
easily customized, for example to collect data from the random
number generator located in the daughter module and to read it
via USB interface. The daughter module can be plugged into
the motherboard or connected using an HDMI cable to be
placed inside a Faraday cage or a temperature control chamber.
The whole platform was designed and optimized to fullfil the
European HECTOR project (H2020) requirements
Efficient Neural Network Implementations on Parallel Embedded Platforms Applied to Real-Time Torque-Vectoring Optimization Using Predictions for Multi-Motor Electric Vehicles
The combination of machine learning and heterogeneous embedded platforms enables new potential for developing sophisticated control concepts which are applicable to the field of vehicle dynamics and ADAS. This interdisciplinary work provides enabler solutions -ultimately implementing fast predictions using neural networks (NNs) on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and graphical processing units (GPUs)- while applying them to a challenging application: Torque Vectoring on a multi-electric-motor vehicle for enhanced vehicle dynamics. The foundation motivating this work is provided by discussing multiple domains of the technological context as well as the constraints related to the automotive field, which contrast with the attractiveness of exploiting the capabilities of new embedded platforms to apply advanced control algorithms for complex control problems. In this particular case we target enhanced vehicle dynamics on a multi-motor electric vehicle benefiting from the greater degrees of freedom and controllability offered by such powertrains. Considering the constraints of the application and the implications of the selected multivariable optimization challenge, we propose a NN to provide batch predictions for real-time optimization. This leads to the major contribution of this work: efficient NN implementations on two intrinsically parallel embedded platforms, a GPU and a FPGA, following an analysis of theoretical and practical implications of their different operating paradigms, in order to efficiently harness their computing potential while gaining insight into their peculiarities. The achieved results exceed the expectations and additionally provide a representative illustration of the strengths and weaknesses of each kind of platform. Consequently, having shown the applicability of the proposed solutions, this work contributes valuable enablers also for further developments following similar fundamental principles.Some of the results presented in this work are related to activities within the 3Ccar project, which has
received funding from ECSEL Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 662192. This Joint Undertaking
received support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Germany,
Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Latvia, Finland, Spain, Italy,
Lithuania. This work was also partly supported by the project ENABLES3, which received funding from ECSEL
Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 692455-2
Self-Partial and Dynamic Reconfiguration Implementation for AES using FPGA
This paper addresses efficient hardware/software implementation approaches for the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm and describes the design and performance testing algorithm for embedded system. Also, with the spread of reconfigurable hardware such as FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array) embedded cryptographic hardware became cost-effective. Nevertheless, it is worthy to note that nowadays, even hardwired cryptographic algorithms are not so safe. From another side, the self-reconfiguring platform is reported that enables an FPGA to dynamically reconfigure itself under the control of an embedded microprocessor. Hardware acceleration significantly increases the performance of embedded systems built on programmable logic. Allowing a FPGA-based MicroBlaze processor to self-select the coprocessors uses can help reduce area requirements and increase a system's versatility. The architecture proposed in this paper is an optimal hardware implementation algorithm and takes dynamic partially reconfigurable of FPGA. This implementation is good solution to preserve confidentiality and accessibility to the information in the numeric communication
An Experimental Study of Reduced-Voltage Operation in Modern FPGAs for Neural Network Acceleration
We empirically evaluate an undervolting technique, i.e., underscaling the
circuit supply voltage below the nominal level, to improve the power-efficiency
of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) accelerators mapped to Field Programmable
Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Undervolting below a safe voltage level can lead to timing
faults due to excessive circuit latency increase. We evaluate the
reliability-power trade-off for such accelerators. Specifically, we
experimentally study the reduced-voltage operation of multiple components of
real FPGAs, characterize the corresponding reliability behavior of CNN
accelerators, propose techniques to minimize the drawbacks of reduced-voltage
operation, and combine undervolting with architectural CNN optimization
techniques, i.e., quantization and pruning. We investigate the effect of
environmental temperature on the reliability-power trade-off of such
accelerators. We perform experiments on three identical samples of modern
Xilinx ZCU102 FPGA platforms with five state-of-the-art image classification
CNN benchmarks. This approach allows us to study the effects of our
undervolting technique for both software and hardware variability. We achieve
more than 3X power-efficiency (GOPs/W) gain via undervolting. 2.6X of this gain
is the result of eliminating the voltage guardband region, i.e., the safe
voltage region below the nominal level that is set by FPGA vendor to ensure
correct functionality in worst-case environmental and circuit conditions. 43%
of the power-efficiency gain is due to further undervolting below the
guardband, which comes at the cost of accuracy loss in the CNN accelerator. We
evaluate an effective frequency underscaling technique that prevents this
accuracy loss, and find that it reduces the power-efficiency gain from 43% to
25%.Comment: To appear at the DSN 2020 conferenc
A Scalable Correlator Architecture Based on Modular FPGA Hardware, Reuseable Gateware, and Data Packetization
A new generation of radio telescopes is achieving unprecedented levels of
sensitivity and resolution, as well as increased agility and field-of-view, by
employing high-performance digital signal processing hardware to phase and
correlate large numbers of antennas. The computational demands of these imaging
systems scale in proportion to BMN^2, where B is the signal bandwidth, M is the
number of independent beams, and N is the number of antennas. The
specifications of many new arrays lead to demands in excess of tens of PetaOps
per second.
To meet this challenge, we have developed a general purpose correlator
architecture using standard 10-Gbit Ethernet switches to pass data between
flexible hardware modules containing Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
chips. These chips are programmed using open-source signal processing libraries
we have developed to be flexible, scalable, and chip-independent. This work
reduces the time and cost of implementing a wide range of signal processing
systems, with correlators foremost among them,and facilitates upgrading to new
generations of processing technology. We present several correlator
deployments, including a 16-antenna, 200-MHz bandwidth, 4-bit, full Stokes
parameter application deployed on the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of
Reionization.Comment: Accepted to Publications of the Astronomy Society of the Pacific. 31
pages. v2: corrected typo, v3: corrected Fig. 1
Automatic generation of hardware Tree Classifiers
Machine Learning is growing in popularity and spreading across different fields for various applications. Due to this trend, machine learning algorithms use different hardware platforms and are being experimented to obtain high test accuracy and throughput. FPGAs are well-suited hardware platform for machine learning because of its re-programmability and lower power consumption. Programming using FPGAs for machine learning algorithms requires substantial engineering time and effort compared to software implementation. We propose a software assisted design flow to program FPGA for machine learning algorithms using our hardware library. The hardware library is highly parameterized and it accommodates Tree Classifiers. As of now, our library consists of the components required to implement decision trees and random forests. The whole automation is wrapped around using a python script which takes you from the first step of having a dataset and design choices to the last step of having a hardware descriptive code for the trained machine learning model
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