FPGA design specialist Celoxica has teamed with US co-processor designer DRC to offer a closely coupled co-processor module for boosting the performance of the AMD Opteron processor for high end workstations.

The firms claim a x300 performance boost to the Opteron processor compared with traditional software acceleration techniques. 

The module is connected directly to the microprocessor’s native HyperTransport technology interface for low-latency operation and resource sharing between the AMD Opteron processor and DRC’s co-processor.

The aim, said the firms, has been to address the interface bottlenecks which have hampered previous attempts to off-load processing into parallel and programmable hardware architectures.

“DRC has developed unique patented technology to let the programmable hardware communicate in a true tightly-coupled co-processing environment with the system processors,” said Larry Laurich, president and CEO of DRC Computer.

According to Randy Allen, corporate v-p at AMD’s server and workstation division: “With the easy-to-use programming environment from Celoxica, programmers can now realise compelling economic and technological advantages of hardware acceleration."
 
Using the HPC Development System from DRC and Celoxica, each workstation contains a motherboard with a Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor and a DRC Coprocessor Module, and each system includes the Celoxica design environment for programming the FPGA from software algorithms. The systems are complete with DDR memory, disk drive, and a graphics controller.

The module, which is manufactured by DRC, is populated with a Virtex-4 FPGA device from Xilinx. Models and prices vary based on the amount of memory, and the number, speed and size of the processors and re-configurable modules. 

The co-processor approach to microprocessor acceleration was discussed in a joint presentation from AMD, Celoxica, and Xilinx at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose earlier this month.
 
www.amd.com