Enables FPGA acceleration code to be portable across SoCs without the need to change, integrate or re-compile Verilog source code
Mountain View, Calif. -- October 15, 2018 – Flex Logix Technologies, Inc., the leading supplier of embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP, architecture and software, today announced that it will demonstrate modular embedded FPGA (eFPGA) capabilities at this week’s Arm TechCon in its booth #513. Modular eFPGA will enable SoC designers to easily use FPGA acceleration code with minimal effort.
“Modular FPGA enables the broader SoC software engineering community to add, change or customize hardware accelerators with a simple function call in their C/C++ software,” said Geoff Tate, CEO and co-founder of Flex Logix. “This will allow designers to speed development of core designs, enabling acceleration to be added or modified as needed anytime in the process.”
FPGA enables reconfigurable acceleration of key workloads, such as encryption/decryption, compression/decompression, DSP, etc, at 30-100x the performance of processors. As an example, Microsoft Azure uses FPGA extensively in its cloud data centers for this purpose. However, until now, using FPGA for acceleration has been limited by developing code for traditional FPGA architectures where the FPGA is programmed as one giant program with pieces of Verilog stitched together manually by scarce Verilog programmers. Each accelerator needs to be re-compiled for different FPGA size needs which means accelerator re-use is “high touch” by Verilog experts. For eFPGA, the problem is compounded because the eFPGA implemented in one SoC cannot be programmed the same as an eFPGA in another because of differences in array sizes and connectons.
Modular FPGA solves this problem and makes FPGA acceleration code portable across SoCs without the need to change, integrate or re-compile the Verilog source code. Instead, like in a processor, FPGA code is “containerized” to fit into eFPGA modules where the modules have all of the same resources so the same code can run in different array sizes and in different SoCs. See www.flex-logix.com for more details and an application note.
About Flex Logix
Flex Logix, founded in March 2014, provides solutions for reconfigurable RTL in chip and system designs using embedded FPGA IP cores and software. The company's technology platform delivers significant customer benefits by dramatically reducing design and manufacturing risks, accelerating technology roadmaps, and bringing greater flexibility to customers’ hardware by enabling customization; real-time updating of protocols and algorithms; and reconfigurable acceleration 30-100x faster than processors. Flex Logix has raised more than $13 million of venture capital. Its EFLXÒ eFPGA has now been ported to process nodes from 180nm to FinFet across multiple fabs and is in use by multiple customers in a wide range of applications. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California and has sales rep offices in China, Europe, Israel, Japan, Taiwan and Texas. More information can be obtained at http://www.flexlogix.com .