ParaFPGA 2011 : high performance computing with multiple FPGAs : design, methodology and applications

ParaFPGA 2011 marks the third mini-symposium devoted to the methodology, design and implementation of parallel applications using FPGAs. The focus of the contributions is mainly on organizing parallel applications in multiple FPGAs. This includes experiences from building a supercomputer with FPGAs, automatic and dedicated balancing of different tasks on heterogeneous FPGA constellations and designing optimal interconnects between collaborating FPGAs

Applications, tools and techniques on the road to exascale computing

This volume of the book series “Advances in Parallel Computing” contains the proceedings of ParCo2011, the 14th biennial ParCo Conference, held from 31 August to 3 September 2011, in Ghent, Belgium. In an era when physical limitations have slowed down advances in the performance of single processing units, and new scientific challenges require exascale speed, parallel processing has gained momentum as a key gateway to HPC (High Performance Computing). Historically, the ParCo conferences have focused on three main themes: Algorithms, Architectures (both hardware and software) and Applications. Nowadays, the scenery has changed from traditional multiprocessor topologies to heterogeneous manycores, incorporating standard CPUs, GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). These platforms are, at a higher abstraction level, integrated in clusters, grids, and clouds. This is reflected in the papers presented at the conference and the contributions as included in these proceedings. An increasing number of new algorithms are optimized for heterogeneous platforms and performance tuning is targeting extreme scale computing. Heterogeneous platforms utilising the compute power and energy efficiency of GPGPUs (General Purpose GPUs) are clearly becoming mainstream HPC systems for a large number of applications in a wide spectrum of application areas. These systems excel in areas such as complex system simulation, real-time image processing and visualisation, etc. High performance computing accelerators may well become the cornerstone of exascale computing applications such as 3-D turbulent combustion flows, nuclear energy simulations, brain research, financial and geophysical modelling. The exploration of new architectures, programming tools and techniques was evidenced by the mini-symposia “Parallel Computing with FPGAs” and “Exascale Programming Models”. The need for exascale hardware and software was also stressed in the industrial session, with contributions from Cray and the European exascale software initiative. Our sincere appreciation goes to the keynote speakers who gave their perspectives on the impact of parallel computing today and the road to exascale computing tomorrow. Our heartfelt thanks go to the authors for their valuable scientific contributions and to the programme committee who reviewed the papers and provided constructive remarks. The international audience was inspired by the quality of the presentations. The attendance and interaction was high and the conference has been an agora where many fruitful ideas were exchanged and explored. We wish to express our sincere thanks to the organizers for the smooth operation of the conference. The University conference centre Het Pand offered an excellent environment for the conference as it allowed delegates to interact informally and easily. A special word of thanks is due to the management and support staff of Het Pand for their proficient and friendly support. The organizers managed to put together an extensive social programme. This included a reception at the medieval Town Hall of Ghent as well as a memorable conference dinner. These social events stimulated interaction amongst delegates and resulted in many new contacts being made. Finally we wish to thank all the many supporters who assisted in the organization and successful running of the event. Erik D'Hollander, Ghent University, Belgium Koen De Bosschere, Ghent University, Belgium Gerhard R. Joubert, TU Clausthal, Germany David Padua, University of Illinois, USA Frans Peters, Philips Research, Netherland

Parallel computing 2011, ParCo 2011: book of abstracts

This book contains the abstracts of the presentations at the conference Parallel Computing 2011, 30 August - 2 September 2011, Ghent, Belgiu

From Mono-FPGA to Multi-FPGA Emulation Platform for NOC Performance Evaluations

International audienceExperimental approaches used for architecture exploration and validation are often based on configurable logic device such as Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). System on Chip (SoC) and Network on Chip (NoC) architectures require multi-FPGA platforms as the resources of a single FPGA may not be big enough. Partitionning a NoC on a multi-FPGA platform requires special techniques for allocating communication channels, physical links and suitable resource allocation scheme. It is a time consuming process reducing the exploration space and validation. In this paper, we present a scalable emulation platform and its associated design flow based on a multi FPGA approach that allows quick exploration, evaluation and comparison of a wide range of NoC solutions. The efficiency of our approach is illustrated through the deployment of the Hermes NoC and its exploration on a mono FPGA and multi-FPGA platform with several traffic implementations

Exploration d'architectures génériques sur FPGA pour des algorithmes d'imagerie multispectrale

Les architectures multiprocesseur sur puce (MPSoC) basées sur les réseaux sur puce (NoC) constituent une des solutions les plus appropriées pour les applications embarquées temps réel de traitement du signal et de l image. De part l augmentation constante de la complexité de ces algorithmes et du type et de la taille des données manipulées, des architectures MPSoC sont nécessaires pour répondre aux contraintes de performance et de portabilité. Mais l exploration de l espace de conception de telles architectures devient très coûteuse en temps. En effet, il faut définir principalement le type et le nombre des coeurs de calcul, l architecture mémoire et le réseau de communication entre tous ces composants. La validation par simulation de haut niveau manque de précision, et la simulation de bas niveau est inadaptée au vu de la taille de l architecture. L émulation sur FPGA devient donc inévitable. Dans le domaine de l image, l imagerie spectrale est de plus en plus utilisée car elle permet de multiplier les intervalles spectraux, améliorant la définition de la lumière d une scène pour permettre un accès à des caractéristiques non visibles à l oeil nu. De nombreux paramètres modifient les caractéristiques de l algorithme, ce qui influence l architecture finale. L objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une méthode pour dimensionner au plus juste l architecture matérielle et logicielle d une application d imagerie multispectrale. La première étape est le dimensionnement du NoC en fonction du trafic sur le réseau. Le développement automatique d une plateforme d émulation sur mono ou multi FPGA facilite cette étape et détermine le positionnement des composants de calcul. Ensuite, le dimensionnement des composants de calcul et leurs fonctionnalités sont validés à l aide de plateformes de simulation existantes, avant la génération du modèle synthétisable sur FPGA. Le flot de conception est ouvert dans le sens qu il accepte différents NoC à condition d avoir le modèle source HDL de ce composant. De nombreux résultats mettent en avant les paramètres importants qui ont une influence sur les performances des architectures et du NoC en particulier. Plusieurs solutions sont décrites, commentées et critiquées. Ces travaux nous permettent de poser les premiers jalons d une plateforme d émulation complète MPSoC à base de NoCThe Multiprocessor-System-On-Chip (MPSoC) architectures based on the Network-On-Chip (NoC) communication are the one of the most appropriate solution for image and signal processing applications under real time constraints. Due to the ever increasing complexity of these algorithms, the types and sizes of the data manipulated, the MPSoC architectures are necessary to meet the constraints of performance and portability. However exploring the design space of such architecture is time consuming. Indeed, many parameters should be defined such as the type and the number of processing cores, the memory architecture and the communication network between all these components. Validation by high-level simulations has the lack of the precision. Low-level simulation is inadequate for such big size of the architecture. Therefore, the emulation on FPGA becomes inevitable. In image processing, spectral imaging is more and more used. This technology captures light from more frequencies than the human eye increasing the number of wavelengths. Invisible details can be extracted from a scene. The difference between all spectral imaging applications is the number of wavelengths and the precision. Many parameters affect the characteristics of the algorithm, having a huge impact on the final architecture. The objective of this thesis is to propose a method for sizing one of the most accurate hardware and software architecture for multispectral imaging application. The first step is the design of the NoC based on the network traffic. The automatic development of an emulation platform on a single FPGA or multi-FPGAs simplifies this step and determines the positioning of the computational components. Then, the design of computational components and their functions are validated using existing simulation platforms. The synthesizable model of the architecture on FPGA is then generated. The design flow is open. Several NoC structures can be inserted using the source model of this component. The set of results obtained points out the major parameters influencing the performances of architecture and the NoC itself. Several solutions are described and analyzed. These studies allow us to lay the groundwork for a complete MPSoC emulation platform based on NoCST ETIENNE-Bib. électronique (422189901) / SudocSudocFranceF