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Migration of long-running Tasks between Reconfigurable Resources using Virtualization

Published: 11 January 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Computing performance and scalability are the essential basics in modern data centres. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide a promising opportunity to improve performance, security and energy efficiency. Especially background acceleration of computationally complex and long-running tasks is an important field of application. A flexible use of reconfigurable devices within a cloud context requires an abstraction of the actual hardware through virtualization.
In this paper we present an approach inspired by paravirtualized machines for the integration of reconfigurable hardware into cloud services. Using partial reconfiguration our hardware and software framework virtualizes a single physical FPGA to enable multiple independent user designs. Essential components are the management of those virtual user-defined accelerators (vFPGA) and their migration between physical FPGAs to achieve higher system-wide utilization. The migration requires saving and restoring the internal state or context of the vFPGA. We demonstrate the application possibilities and the resource trade-off of our approach by transferring a running design from one physical FPGA to another. Moreover, we present future perspectives for the use of FPGAs in cloud-based environments.

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  • (2022)Cloud Building Block Chip for Creating FPGA and ASIC CloudsACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems10.1145/346682215:2(1-35)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2022
  • (2022)Stop and Look: A Novel Checkpointing and Debugging Flow for FPGAsIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/TC.2021.313382871:10(2513-2526)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2022
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Published In

cover image ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News
ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News  Volume 44, Issue 4
HEART '16
September 2016
96 pages
ISSN:0163-5964
DOI:10.1145/3039902
Issue’s Table of Contents

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 11 January 2017
Published in SIGARCH Volume 44, Issue 4

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Author Tags

  1. Cloud Computing
  2. Context Migration
  3. Field Programmable Gate Arrays
  4. Partial Reconfiguration
  5. Virtualization

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Cited By

View all
  • (2023)Enabling Elastic Resource Management in Cloud FPGAs via A Multi-layer Collaborative Approach2023 IEEE 31st Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM)10.1109/FCCM57271.2023.00061(242-244)Online publication date: May-2023
  • (2022)Cloud Building Block Chip for Creating FPGA and ASIC CloudsACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems10.1145/346682215:2(1-35)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2022
  • (2022)Stop and Look: A Novel Checkpointing and Debugging Flow for FPGAsIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/TC.2021.313382871:10(2513-2526)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2022
  • (2022)Framework for Live Migration of FPGA based ECB-mode AES-128 accelerator2022 2nd International Conference on Digital Futures and Transformative Technologies (ICoDT2)10.1109/ICoDT255437.2022.9787468(1-6)Online publication date: 24-May-2022
  • (2022)FPGA sharing in the cloud: a comprehensive analysisFrontiers of Computer Science: Selected Publications from Chinese Universities10.1007/s11704-022-2127-017:5Online publication date: 24-Dec-2022
  • (2020)Do OS abstractions make sense on FPGAs?Proceedings of the 14th USENIX Conference on Operating Systems Design and Implementation10.5555/3488766.3488822(991-1010)Online publication date: 4-Nov-2020
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  • (2020)CoNFVACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems10.1145/340911314:1(1-29)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2020
  • (2020)Feel Free to InterruptACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems10.1145/337249113:1(1-27)Online publication date: 28-Jan-2020
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