ACADEMIA

Combination of graphical and C-language design entry tools provides new opportunities for high-performance computing: Starbridge Systems and Impulse Accelerated Technologies announced a joint initiative to provided graphical and C-language tools for high-performance, FPGA-based computing. This initiative includes the release of a Platform Support Package (PSP) allowing integration between the Impulse CoDeveloper C-to-FPGA compiler and the Starbridge Viva graphical entry tools. Target applications for the combined tools include bioinformatics, geophysics, security, image processing, financial computing and other industry areas. “Developers of high-performance computing applications have a need for system-level design tools that allow them to take advantage of the massive levels of parallelism available in FPGA-based systems,” said Kent Gilson, Founder and President of Starbridge. “At the same time, these developers have a strong desire to use software programming languages and tools that are familiar to them. By offering a solution that serves both needs, we expect to attract a much larger number of HPC developers to FPGA-based computing.” To provide this capability, Starbridge and Impulse have jointly developed a Platform Support Package that allows the Impulse C-to-FPGA compiler tools to generate hardware descriptions (in the form of VHDL and Verilog output files) that are compatible with the Viva graphical tools. The result of this is that C-language descriptions for accelerated algorithms may be freely intermixed with optimized FPGA blocks in the Viva programming environment, then synthesized and downloaded to the FPGA-based target. Supported platform targets include systems available from Silicon Graphics, Nallatech, Pico Computing, Digilent and others. “We are pleased by the opportunity to work with Starbridge,” stated David Pellerin, CTO of Impulse. “Impulse C has demonstrated its value for C-to-hardware acceleration, and the Viva graphical environment represents an excellent and complementary method of design for scientific, security, financial, and other algorithms.” Research institutions, government agencies and commercial organizations have an increasing need to accelerate large, computationally-intensive applications in order to decrease processing times and reduce power requirements. FPGAs are widely recognized for their ability to handle such computations in a more efficient manner, using massive levels of parallelism and lower clock rates. The Starbridge Viva development software, when combined with Impulse C, greatly simplifies the development of such applications.