GOVERNMENT

Cray Inc. today announced that it is collaborating with DSPlogic, Inc. of Germantown, MD, to simplify the process of accelerating high-performance computing (HPC) applications using the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) capabilities of the Cray XD1 supercomputer. DSPlogic's Rapid Reconfigurable Development Kit includes a development environment that provides a fast and easy way for scientists and programmers to take advantage of the reconfigurable computing features of the Cray XD1 supercomputer without learning a new programming language or becoming experts in FPGA technology. The FPGA devices tightly integrated into the Cray XD1 system accelerate applications by acting like high-speed, specialized co-processors. Running special subroutines that speed up parts of the application's code, the FPGAs can dramatically increase the speed of engineering and scientific applications such as biotechnology, cryptography, financial modeling and other compute-intensive areas of study. Because FPGAs are also reconfigurable, they can be easily reprogrammed and optimized for each application using tools such as those offered by DSPlogic. DSPlogic's Rapid Reconfigurable Computing Development Kit, based on the popular MATLAB and Simulink scientific computing platforms, provides a graphical development environment that hides the intricacies of FPGA implementation and allows users to focus on programming their applications. A large library of optimized functions provides rapid implementation, crucial high-speed communications, and efficient use of reconfigurable resources for maximum application speed-up. In addition, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) accelerator is a new turnkey solution that uses the FPGAs to provide up to a 10x speed-up for the FFT algorithm running on the Cray XD1 supercomputer. "In the past, the benefits of FPGAs have been limited to a group of highly specialized engineers. The DSPlogic Rapid Reconfigurable Computing Development Kit makes it easy for all scientists and programmers to take full advantage of the benefits of reconfigurable computing," said Mike Babst, president of DSPlogic. "We are very pleased to be working with Cray and the Cray XD1 supercomputer. As our first supported reconfigurable system, the Cray XD1 system has proved to be an excellent platform to showcase the capabilities of our new product." "We are happy to be working with DSPlogic to bring simpler reconfigurable computing to our customers," said Amar Shan, product manager for the Cray XD1 system. "The Cray XD1 supercomputer was designed from the outset to maximize FPGA operation by linking the FPGAs to the system's high-bandwidth interconnect instead of through low bandwidth PCI adapters found on most other systems. DSPlogic's products let users who may not be well versed in VHDL or other hardware-oriented development tools take advantage of this application acceleration feature through an easy to use development toolset or simple plug-in library."