NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SuperComputing
2014 -- Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) and IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today unveiled the industry's first FPGA-based acceleration
platform that coherently connects an FPGA to a POWER8 CPU
leveraging IBM's Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI).
The reconfigurable hardware accelerator features shared virtual
memory between the FPGA and processor which significantly improves
system performance, efficiency and flexibility in high-performance
computing (HPC) and data center applications. Altera and IBM are
presenting several POWER8 systems that are coherently accelerated
using FPGAs at SuperComputing 2014.
Working together through the OpenPOWER Foundation, Altera and
IBM are developing highly flexible heterogeneous compute solutions
that bring new levels of performance and efficiency to POWER8
systems. FPGA-accelerated POWER8 systems are optimized to enable
compute- and processing-intensive tasks required in next-generation
HPC and data center applications, including data compression,
encryption, image processing and search. Using CAPI to coherently
attach FPGA accelerators to the fabric of a POWER8 processor and
main system memory make the FPGA appear as simply another core on
the POWER8 processor. This results in shortened development
time by greatly reducing lines of software code and reduced
processor cycles versus conventional IO attached accelerators. A
single FPGA-accelerated POWER8 server is able to operate at
industry-leading levels of efficiency, allowing system architects
to cut their data center footprint in half.
"As today's high-performance computing applications evolve with
rapidly changing workloads, it is imperative we build in flexible
accelerators to make IBM POWER processors more efficient in IBM
POWER Systems and all OpenPOWER compatible systems," said
Brad McCredie, vice president of IBM
Power development and OpenPOWER president. "The work Altera
has done to provide FPGA-based reconfigurable hardware acceleration
to our POWER processors enabled through CAPI allows software
developers to build highly efficient, highly flexible, performance
optimized systems."
Altera and IBM have worked with board partner Nallatech to
develop an OpenPOWER CAPI Development Kit for POWER8 that features
Nallatech's FPGA-based 385 card, the industry's first CAPI FPGA
accelerator card. This off-the-shelf development platform allows
designers to start using FPGA accelerators with POWER8 systems.
The Altera SDK for OpenCL provides developers the resources they
need to develop their own custom FPGA-based accelerators and gain a
time to market, power and performance advantage. The release of the
OpenCL 2.0 specification supports shared virtual memory
capabilities which enable programmers to address memory shared by
the host and accelerator using CAPI.
"Our work with the OpenPOWER Foundation has enabled us to
deliver highly flexible heterogeneous compute platforms that target
POWER-based systems," said David
Gamba, senior director of the computer and storage business
unit at Altera. "Altera is at the forefront of supplying POWER
users reconfigurable hardware accelerators based on CAPI that are
supported with an OpenCL programming model. The result is highly
optimized accelerators that deliver optimal FLOPs/Watt/dollar."
Live SuperComputing 2014 Demonstrations
Altera and IBM will be formally presenting POWER8 systems being
accelerated by FPGAs at SuperComputing 2014, including:
- IBM Data Engine for NoSQL: This
solution enables a significantly lower cost basis for deploying
NoSQL data stores. The solution features Altera's FPGAs and IBM's
unique CAPI-enabled POWER System S822L with IBM's FlashSystem 840 –
demonstrating server consolidation by enabling one POWER8 server to
be used instead of 24 X86 servers for a well-sized NoSQL
store.
- IBM Data Engine for Analytics: This
solution is a customizable infrastructure solution with integrated
software optimized for big data and analytics workloads. The IBM
Data Engine features POWER8 CPU and Altera FPGAs working together
to manage efficient workloads and provide flexible and adjustable
storage and compute resources.
- OpenPOWER CAPI Developer Kit for
POWER8: This demonstration uses a Nallatech OpenPOWER CAPI
Development Kit to show how developers can get started using
FPGA-accelerated POWER8 systems.
About The OpenPOWER Foundation
OpenPOWER Foundation members include Altera, IBM, Google,
Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan. These companies are working together to
build advanced server, networking, storage and
hardware-acceleration technologies aimed at delivering more
choices, control and flexibility to developers of next-generation
hyperscale and cloud data centers. For information on the
OpenPOWER Foundation visit www.openpowerfoundation.org
About Altera
Altera® programmable solutions enable designers of electronic
systems to rapidly and cost effectively innovate, differentiate and
win in their markets. Altera offers FPGAs, SoCs, CPLDs, and
complementary technologies, such as power management, to provide
high-value solutions to customers worldwide. Follow Altera via
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and RSS, and subscribe to
product update emails and newsletters. Visit
http://www.altera.com.
ALTERA, ARRIA, CYCLONE, ENPIRION, MAX, MEGACORE, NIOS, QUARTUS
and STRATIX words and logos are trademarks of Altera
Corporation and registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
and in other countries. All other words and logos identified as
trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective
holders as described at www.altera.com/legal.
Editor Contact:
Steve
Gabriel
Altera Corporation
(408) 544-6846
newsroom@altera.com
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SOURCE Altera Corporation