Abstract
In this chapter we present OpenSPL, a novel programming language that enables designers to describe their computational structures in space and benefit from parallelism at multiple levels. We start with our motivation why spatial programming is currently among the most promising approaches for building future computing systems in Sect. 5.1. In Sect. 5.2 we introduce the basic principles behind OpenSPL and exemplify them with few simple examples targeting the first commercial offering of a Spatial Computer system by Maxeler Technologies. We validate the potential of Spatial Computers in Sect. 5.3 and conclude in Sect. 5.4.
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Notes
- 1.
The sum of power consumption and heat dissipation.
- 2.
Referred to as instructions.
- 3.
When all, typically thousands, pipeline stages operate fully on large number of partial results.
- 4.
The aggregated metric of the number of available pins and their individual bandwidths.
- 5.
Two options exist: implicit support by the SCS and explicit management by the programmer.
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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Becker, T., Mencer, O., Gaydadjiev, G. (2016). Spatial Programming with OpenSPL. In: Koch, D., Hannig, F., Ziener, D. (eds) FPGAs for Software Programmers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26408-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26408-0_5
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