GOVERNMENT

Cray today announced that it is collaborating with Celoxica Ltd. to make Celoxica's DK Design Suite available to customers who want to use a software design flow to accelerate their applications using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) integrated into the Cray XD1 supercomputer. The DK Design Suite consists of C-based design and synthesis tools that allow software engineers skilled in high-level programming languages to implement FPGA-based algorithms using the familiar C language. Called reconfigurable computing, FPGA technology can dramatically increase the speed of engineering and scientific applications. Users of a Cray XD1 system equipped with FPGAs are able to accelerate their applications by programming the FPGAs to act like high-speed, specialized co-processors. The FPGA devices take some of the computational load off the main processors by running special subroutines that speed up parts of the application's code. As a result, users can solve complex problems in less time without having to increase the size and power budget of their computing platforms. This performance-enhancing technology is known as reconfigurable computing because the FPGAs can be configured as the application runs to optimize efficiency. Application types that can benefit from this technique include seismic engineering, astrophysics, biotechnology, financial modeling and other compute-intensive areas of study. "Cray XD1 system users who want to realize the full potential of reconfigurable computing will now be able to choose an easy-to-use C programming environment. The Celoxica DK Design Suite offers tools that deliver a rapid and flexible implementation methodology specifically designed for reconfigurable architectures," said Phil Bishop, president and CEO of Celoxica. "We are excited to be working with a company of Cray's stature as part of our strategy to expand our business in the high-performance computing arena." "The unique design of the Cray XD1 system maximizes FPGA operation by directly linking the FPGAs to the system's high-speed interconnect, accelerating communications between the FPGAs and the processors," said Amar Shan, product manager for the Cray XD1 system. "Software engineers seeking to optimize the performance of their applications with FPGAs can use Celoxica's tools to program in the familiar C language, rather than having to master low-level languages such as VHDL or other tools more suited to hardware development. Cray is pleased to be partnering with Celoxica as we continue to add tools to help our customers get the greatest advantage from their supercomputing investment."