Cloud-Based FPGA Custom Computing Machines for Streaming Applications

A novel platform for launching and using field-programmable gate arrays (FPFA) custom computing machines (CCMs) in clouds and data centers is proposed. Based on a developed FPGA virtualization scheme, it allows users to create independent computing services on network-attached standalone FPGAs. The interface of the virtual FPGA (vFPGA)-based CCM is automatically generated by a virtualization layer and based on the user's specifications. An FPGA hypervisor has been developed that can be easily integrated with any cloud management tool. It allows the users to launch/use/tear down vFPGA-based CCMs in a similar manner to conventional virtual machines (VMs). A complete prototype of the proposed platform has been realized and tested with a streamed image processing application. Its performance was 3-4x and ~1.4-2.4x times better than an SW implementation on a VM and a powerful server, respectively. Compared with other platforms for FPGA attachment to a cloud or datacenter, the proposed platform has relatively low overhead in terms of FPGA resources while providing the highest level of abstraction and virtualization.