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1. FaaM: FPGA-as-a-Microservice - A Case Study for Data Compression

   https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201921407029  

   Ojika, David ; Gordon-Ross, Ann ; Lam, Herman ; Patel, Bhavesh ; Forti, A. ; Betev, L. ; Litmaath, M. ; Smirnova, O. ; Hristov, P. ( January 2019 , EPJ Web of Conferences)

   Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have largely been used in communication and high-performance computing and given the recent advances in big data and emerging trends in cloud computing (e.g., serverless [18]), FPGAs are increasingly being introduced into these domains (e.g., Microsoft’s datacenters [6] and Amazon Web Services [10]). To address these domains’ processing needs, recent research has focused on using FPGAs to accelerate workloads, ranging from analytics and machine learning to databases and network function virtualization. In this paper, we present an ongoing effort to realize a high-performance FPGA-as-a-microservice (FaaM) architecture for the cloud. We discuss some of the technical challengesmore »and propose several solutions for efficiently integrating FPGAs into virtualized environments. Our case study deploying a multithreaded, multi-user compression as a microservice using the FaaM architecture indicate that microservices-based FPGA acceleration can sustain high-performance compared to straightforward implementation with minimal to no communication overhead despite the hardware abstraction.« less
2. Using FPGAs as Microservices: Technology, Challenges and Case Study

   Ojika, S ; Gordon-Ross, A ; Lam, H ; Patel, B ; Kaul, G ; Strayer, J ( March 2018 , 9th Workshop on Big Data Benchmarks Performance, Optimization and Emerging Hardware (BPOE-9))

   Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have largely been used in communication and high-performance computing, and given the recent advances in big data, machine learning and emerging trends in cloud computing (e.g., serverless [1]), FPGAs are increasingly being introduced into these domains (e.g., Microsoft’s datacenters [2] and Amazon Web Services [3]). To address these domains’ processing needs, recent research has focused on using FPGAs to accelerate workloads, ranging from analytics and machine learning to databases and network function virtualization. In this paper, we present a high-performance FPGA-as-a-microservice (FaaM) architecture for the cloud. We discuss some of the technical challenges and propose severalmore »solutions for efficiently integrating FPGAs into virtualized environments. Our case study deploying a multi-threaded, multi-user compression as a microservice using FaaM indicates that microservices-based FPGA acceleration can sustain high-performance as compared to a straightforward CPU implementation with minimal to no communication overhead despite the hardware abstraction.« less
3. Research Opportunities in Heterogeneous Computing for Machine Learning

   https://doi.org/10.1109/HPCS.2018.00094  

   Lam, Herman ; Ojika, David ( July 2018 , International Workshop on High Performance and Dynamic Reconfigurable Systems and Networks (DRSN))

   In recent times, AI and deep learning have witnessed explosive growth in almost every subject involving data. Complex data analyses problems that took prolonged periods, or required laborious manual effort, are now being tackled through AI and deep-learning techniques with unprecedented accuracy. Machine learning (ML) using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) has shown great promise for such applications. However, traditional CPU-based sequential computing no longer can meet the requirements of mission-critical applications which are compute-intensive and require low latency. Heterogeneous computing (HGC), with CPUs integrated with accelerators such as GPUs and FPGAs, offers unique capabilities to accelerate CNNs. In this presentation,more »we will focus on using FPGA-based reconfigurable computing to accelerate various aspects of CNN. We will begin with the current state of the art in using FPGAs for CNN acceleration, followed by the related R&D activities (outlined below) in the SHREC* Center at the University of Florida, based on which we will discuss the opportunities in heterogeneous computing for machine learning.« less
4. Efficient OpenCL Accelerators for Canny Edge Detection Algorithm on a CPU-FPGA Platform

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ReConFig48160.2019.8994769  

   Rahamneh, Samah ; Sawalha, Lina ( December 2019 , International Conference on ReConFigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig))

   The processing demands of current and emerging applications, such as image/video processing, are increasing due to the deluge of data, generated by mobile and edge devices. This raises challenges for a vast range of computing systems, starting from smart-phones and reaching cloud and data centers. Heterogeneous computing demonstrates its ability as an efficient computing model due to its capability to adapt to various workload requirements. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) provide power and performance benefits and have been used in many application domains from embedded systems to the cloud. In this paper, we used a closely coupled CPU-FPGA heterogeneous systemmore »to accelerate a sliding window based image processing algorithm, Canny edge detector. We accelerated Canny using two different implementations: Code partitioned and data partitioned. In the data partitioned implementation, we proposed a weighted round-robin based algorithm that partitions input images and distributes the load between the CPU and the FPGA based on latency. The paper also compares the performance of the proposed accelerators with separate CPU and FPGA implementations. Using our hybrid CPU-FPGA based algorithm, we achieved a speedup of up to 4.8× over a CPU-only and up to 2.1× over a FPGA-only implementations. Moreover, the estimated total energy consumption of our algorithm is more efficient than a CPU-only implementation. Our results show a significant reduction in energy-delay product (EDP) compared to the CPU-only implementation, and comparable EDP results to the FPGA-only implementation.« less
5. CAPSULe: Cross-FPGA Covert-Channel Attacks through Power Supply Unit Leakage

   https://doi.org/10.1109/SP40000.2020.00070  

   Giechaskiel, Ilias ; Rasmussen, Kasper ; Szefer, Jakub ( May 2020 , IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy)

   Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are ver-satile, reconfigurable integrated circuits that can be used ashardware accelerators to process highly-sensitive data. Leakingthis data and associated cryptographic keys, however, can un-dermine a system’s security. To prevent potentially unintentionalinteractions that could break separation of privilege betweendifferent data center tenants, FPGAs in cloud environments arecurrently dedicated on a per-user basis. Nevertheless, while theFPGAs themselves are not shared among different users, otherparts of the data center infrastructure are. This paper specificallyshows for the first time that powering FPGAs, CPUs, and GPUsthrough the same power supply unit (PSU) can be exploitedin FPGA-to-FPGA, CPU-to-FPGA, and GPU-to-FPGA covertchannels betweenmore »independent boards. These covert channelscan operate remotely, without the need for physical access to,or modifications of, the boards. To demonstrate the attacks, thispaper uses a novel combination of “sensing” and “stressing” ringoscillators as receivers on the sink FPGA. Further, ring oscillatorsare used as transmitters on the source FPGA. The transmittingand receiving circuits are used to determine the presence of theleakage on off-the-shelf Xilinx boards containing Artix 7 andKintex 7 FPGA chips. Experiments are conducted with PSUs bytwo vendors, as well as CPUs and GPUs of different generations.Moreover, different sizes and types of ring oscillators are alsotested. In addition, this work discusses potential countermeasuresto mitigate the impact of the cross-board leakage. The results ofthis paper highlight the dangers of shared power supply unitsin local and cloud FPGAs, and therefore a fundamental need tore-think FPGA security for shared infrastructures.« less