Domain Specific Abstractions for the Development of Fast-by-Construction Dataflow Codes on FPGAs
FPGAs are popular in many fields but have yet to gain wide acceptance for accelerating HPC codes. A major cause is that whilst the growth of High-Level Synthesis (HLS), enabling the use of C or C++, has increased accessibility, without widespread algorithmic changes these tools only provide correct-...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-10-01
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| Series: | Chips |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2674-0729/3/4/17 |
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| Summary: | FPGAs are popular in many fields but have yet to gain wide acceptance for accelerating HPC codes. A major cause is that whilst the growth of High-Level Synthesis (HLS), enabling the use of C or C++, has increased accessibility, without widespread algorithmic changes these tools only provide correct-by-construction rather than fast-by-construction programming. The fundamental issue is that HLS presents a Von Neumann-based execution model that is poorly suited to FPGAs, resulting in a significant disconnect between HLS’s language semantics and how experienced FPGA programmers structure dataflow algorithms to exploit hardware. We have developed the high-level language Lucent which builds on principles previously developed for programming general-purpose dataflow architectures. Using Lucent as a vehicle, in this paper we explore appropriate abstractions for developing application-specific dataflow machines on reconfigurable architectures. The result is an approach enabling fast-by-construction programming for FPGAs, delivering competitive performance against hand-optimised HLS codes whilst significantly enhancing programmer productivity. |
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| ISSN: | 2674-0729 |