FPGA Acceleration Solution Released for AMD Opteron(TM) Processor-Based Systems; Celoxica Delivers C Programming Environment for DRC Reconfigurable Coprocessors
OXFORDSHIRE, England—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 24, 2006—
Celoxica (LSE:CXA) and DRC Corporation today announced
the availability of a computing workstation that couples the AMD
Opteron(TM) processor with a dynamically reconfigurable coprocessor
module manufactured by DRC and populated with the award-winning
Virtex(TM)-4 FPGA device from Xilinx, Inc. This high-performance
computing development system combines the power of FPGA co-processing
with the productivity and ease-of-use of a software compilation flow.
Software compilation technology from Celoxica is used to program
the FPGA in the DRC Coprocessor Module. The module is connected
directly to the native HyperTransport(TM) technology interface for
low-latency operation and resource sharing between the AMD Opteron
processor and DRC's coprocessor. This innovative combination provides
an alternative architecture for processor augmentation by exhibiting
as much as 300x performance improvement over software-only solutions
while lowering power and heat requirements.
Previous attempts to off-load processing into parallel and
programmable hardware architectures have been hampered by price,
performance, and capacity barriers as well as the lack of software
programming tools. As discussed in a joint presentation from AMD,
Celoxica, and Xilinx at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose
earlier this month, the current generation of FPGA, interconnect and
software compilation technologies have overcome these barriers,
resulting in the availability of solutions such as this computing
development workstation.
"The DRC Coprocessor Module coupled with the AMD Opteron(TM)
processor with Direct Connect Architecture establishes a
cost-effective, accelerated-computing platform," said Randy Allen,
corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division, AMD. "With
the easy-to-use programming environment from Celoxica, programmers can
now realize compelling economic and technological advantages of
hardware acceleration."
"DRC has developed unique patented technology to let the
programmable hardware communicate in a true tightly-coupled
co-processing environment with the system processors," said Larry
Laurich, president and CEO of DRC Computer Corporation. "With the
Celoxica software tools, the user can easily choose the best
processing environment for each part of their algorithm to achieve the
highest possible performance in the most cost-effective
implementation."
The HPC Development System available from DRC and Celoxica is a
platform for exploration of applications for FPGA co-processing. Each
workstation contains a motherboard with a Dual-Core AMD Opteron(TM)
processor and a DRC Coprocessor Module, and each system includes the
Celoxica design environment for programming the FPGA from software
algorithms. The systems are complete with DDR memory, disk drive, and
a graphics controller. Models and prices vary based on the amount of
memory, and the number, speed and size of the processors and
re-configurable modules. Customers may use this system to process
their algorithms, or may explore the system off-load performance to
design their own custom configuration.
"The DRC and Celoxica acceleration platform leverages the enormous
potential of Virtex-4 FPGAs as a co-processor to industry-leading
general purpose processors like the AMD Opteron processor. Algorithms
embedded in large applications can be greatly accelerated to improve
the overall compute performance for systems in many different markets
such as scientific and medical imaging," said Krishna Rangasayee,
senior director of vertical marketing and partnerships at Xilinx.
Phil Bishop, CEO for Celoxica, said, "Celoxica and DRC have
combined state-of-the-art processors, programmable hardware,
high-speed interconnect, and software compilation technology to
deliver high-performance accelerated computing for applications that
were never able to take advantage of hardware processing before."
About Celoxica
A leader in electronic system level design (ESL) and FPGA-based
acceleration, Celoxica is enabling the next generation of advanced
electronic products by producing tools, boards, IP and services that
turn software into silicon. Celoxica technology raises design
abstraction to the algorithm level, accelerating productivity and
lowering risk and costs by programming semiconductor hardware directly
from C-based software descriptions. Adding to a growing installed
base, Celoxica provides the world's most widely used C-based
behavioral design and synthesis solutions to companies developing
products in markets such as consumer electronics, defense and
aerospace, automotive, industrial and security. Celoxica is a publicly
traded company on the Alternative Investment Market of the London
Stock Exchange under the symbol CXA. For more information, visit:
www.celoxica.com
About DRC
DRC is a leading provider of dynamically reconfigurable
coprocessing modules that plug directly into server/workstation
processor sockets. DRC delivers complete solutions for solving
compute-intensive problems and for accelerating high-performance
applications. With the DRC Coprocessor Module and DRC Development
Systems, DRC addresses the HPC industry's growing physical limitations
of compute power, heat, clock speed, and density. Founded in 2004, DRC
is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information
visit www.drccomputer.com.
Celoxica and the Celoxica logo are trademarks of Celoxica Holdings
plc. All other brand names and product names are the property of their
respective owners.
Contact:
Celoxica Ltd.
Jeff Jussel, 512-795-8170
Email Contact
or
VitalCom Marketing & PR
Lou Covey, 650-366-8212
Email Contact
or
Neesham PR
Peter van der Sluijs, +44-1296-628180
Email Contact
|
Be the first to review this article
