The FP7 project FASTER (completed in November) aimed at making partially reconfigurable technology easier to use. During the three years of the project, a complete design methodology along with several implementation and verification techniques were developed. In addition to the “classical”, region based reconfiguration, FASTER worked on micro-reconfiguration to change only very small parts of the device through parameterization. The integrated FASTER frontend toolchain focused on dynamically reconfigurable designs using platform specific analytical models, performance optimization and floorplanning techniques and is a framework complementary to commercial CAD tools. An experimental version of the Maxeler toolchain supporting partial Dataflow Engine (DFE) reconfiguration was implemented and carefully investigated.
The FASTER project contributions have not been adopted in the production releases of Maxeler’s MaxCompiler and MaxelerOS, however, many novel techniques were developed and carefully investigated in close collaboration with the academic partners. “We consider FASTER a big success since it fulfilled exactly the role we expect from such collaborative projects: to join forces with academic leaders and investigate long term, high-risk developments” said Oskar Mencer, CEO of Maxeler. “The FASTER project technical agenda helped us build long-lasting collaborations and also minimise potential problems in our compilation and runtime technology and as such keep offering a very solid product portfolio.”
About FASTER
FP7 ICT 287804 FASTER (Facilitating Analysis and Synthesis Technologies for Effective Reconfiguration) was a multi-national research project partially funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7) for Research and Technological Development. The project partners were: Chalmers University of Technology, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, Ghent University, Imperial College London, Maxeler Technologies, Politecnico di Milano, STMicroelectronics and Synelixis Solutions. The project started on September 1st, 2011 and ran for 3 years. For more information please visit: http://www.fp7-faster.eu.
About Maxeler Technologies
Maxeler Technologies, Inc. pioneers Maximum Performance Computing. It combines high performance computing (HPC) expertise with custom dataflow computing technology to deliver competitive advantage. Its complete and scalable solutions include hardware platforms, software programming tools and complete applications. Maxeler’s technology enables organizations to speed up processing times by 20-50x, with over 90% reduction in energy usage and over 95% reduction in data center space. For further information please visit www.maxeler.com.