The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
Workshop: Eighth International Workshop on Heterogeneous High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing (H2RC 2022)
Authors: Sahan Bandara (Boston University), Ahmed Sanaullah (Red Hat Inc), Zaid Tahir (Boston University), Ulrich Drepper (Red Hat Inc), and Martin C. Herbordt (Boston University)
Abstract: Host-FPGA connectivity is critical for enabling a vast number of FPGA use-cases. This interface must be reliable, robust, and uniform, while supporting necessary protocols and functionality. Existing support for host-FPGA connectivity has a number of drawbacks, including a lack of portability and poor upstream support. Native VirtIO drivers in the host OS can help address these limitations, but implementing device-side support for VirtIO is challenging due to the hardware complexity involved.
We present a framework for enabling FPGAs to interface native operating system VirtIO drivers on the host. To reduce the implementation overhead and improve portability, this framework uses both generic RTL blocks and modified, chip/device specific PCIe IP blocks. We test the framework using Xilinx IP, implemented on an Alinx board, and a host machine running Fedora. Our results show that the FPGA can be successfully enumerated as a VirtIO device, and interfaced using only native Linux VirtIO drivers.