C to FPGA Compilation and Domain-Specific Computing

In the first part of my talk, I shall present a platform-based compilation and synthesis system, named xPilot, developed at UCLA. The xPilot provides advanced behavioral synthesis capability for compiling C, C++ , or SystemC applications to high quality RTL code optimized for FPGA platforms for logic, interconnects, and memory optimization with flexibile performance and area trade-off. It includes a number of algorithmic innovations, such as scheduling based on the system of difference constraints, resource binding for distributed memory architectures, simultaneous register and functional unit binding, etc. The xPilot system has been licensed by AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc. for commercialization. The AutoPilot tool from AutoESL, derived from xPilot, has been successfully used for a number of FPGA designs.

One application of using such C-to-FGPA compilation systems as xPilot or AutoPilot is to enable domain-specific computing using FPGAs as customized computing engines for accelerating a wide range of applications. The recent developments by AMD to open up its HyperTransport bus and Intel to open up its Front-side Bus lead to new high-performance computing platforms with high-bandwidth communication between CPUs and FPGAs, which make it possible to develop high-performance, power-efficient domain-specific computing platforms. In the second part of my talk, I shall share our experience in applying FPGA-based domain-specific computing for a number of computation-intensive applications in many domains, such as multimedia applications, financial engineering, and computer-aided designs. We have achieved very engaging initial results, including over 150X improvement in power-performance efficiency.

Speaker Details

JASON CONG received his B.S. degree in computer science from Peking University in 1985, his M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987 and 1990, respectively. Currently, he is a professor and the chairman of the Computer Science Department of University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a co-director of the VLSI CAD Laboratory.Dr. Cong’s research interests include computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems, design and synthesis of system-on-a-chip, programmable systems, novel computer architectures, nano-systems, and highly scalable algorithms. He has published over 250 research papers and led over 30 research projects in these areas. Dr. Cong received a number of awards and recognitions, including the Ross J. Martin Award for Excellence in Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, the NSF Young Investigator Award in 1993, the Northrop Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award from UCLA in 1993, the ACM/SIGDA Meritorious Service Award in 1998, and the SRC Technical Excellence Award in 2000. He also received four Best Paper Awards selected for the 1995 IEEE Trans. on CAD, the 2005 International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD), the 2005 ACM Transaction on Design Automation of Electronic Systems, and the 2008 International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), respectively. He was elected to an IEEE Fellow in 2000. Dr. Cong was the founder and president of Aplus Design Technologies, Inc., until it was acquired by Magma Design Automation in 2003. Currently, he serves as the Chief Technology Advisor of Magma and AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc.Dr. Cong has graduated 24 PhD students. A number of them are now faculty members in major research universities, including Georgia Tech., Purdue, SUNY Binghamton, UCLA, UIUC, and UT Austin. Others are taking key R&D or management positions in major EDA/computer/semiconductor companies or being founding members of high-tech startups.

Date:
Speakers:
Jason Cong
Affiliation:
UCLA