BaseJump F1 Tutorial

Welcome to the BaseJump F1 Tutorial

Sponsored by the ADA Center which is funded by SRC/DARPA JUMP Program!

FPGA accelerated computing using AWS F1

The goal of this tutorial is to learn how to deploy hardware accelerators on a cloud FPGA.

For $1.65 an hour, anybody in the world can run your accelerator
in the Amazon F1 FPGA Cloud!!

Learn more about FPGA accelerated computing using AWS F1 instances here.

Cloud FPGAs has demonstrated already being a powerful platform for:

The hardware accelerator functionality:

Take an input file with lowercase characters, convert them into uppercase, and write the result in an output file.
Similar to the linux translator:
tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' < input.txt > output.txt

Sample input/output:

cat input.txt

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis
nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu
fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum

cat output.txt

LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT, SED DO EIUSMOD TEMPOR
INCIDIDUNT UT LABORE ET DOLORE MAGNA ALIQUA. UT ENIM AD MINIM VENIAM, QUIS
NOSTRUD EXERCITATION ULLAMCO LABORIS NISI UT ALIQUIP EX EA COMMODO CONSEQUAT.
DUIS AUTE IRURE DOLOR IN REPREHENDERIT IN VOLUPTATE VELIT ESSE CILLUM DOLORE EU
FUGIAT NULLA PARIATUR. EXCEPTEUR SINT OCCAECAT CUPIDATAT NON PROIDENT, SUNT IN
CULPA QUI OFFICIA DESERUNT MOLLIT ANIM ID EST LABORUM

The hardware accelerator implementation:

The hardware accelerator should be written in Verilog and inside the hello world file.
File IO should be done in software in test_hello_world.c.
Translation should be done in hardware in cl_hello_world.sv.

Initial steps:

Follow this tutorial.
Copy the new test_hello_world.c to /hdk/cl/examples/cl_hello_world/software/runtime
Compile and run.

Tips

The hello world design is built for swapping bytes in a 32-bit register.
This functionality is implemented here.
The hello world design documentation can be found here.
The AWS shell interface specification can be found here.
This shell is basically what is going to be connected to your design
and interface the host processor (Intel Xeon).
A programmer's view of the custom logic can be found here.

Thanks for Luis Vega of Taylor's Bespoke Silicon Group @ U. Washington
for authoring the first version of the tutorial,
and the students of University of Washington CSE 548 for validating it!