Processor designer AMD is backing an organisation that aims to make its parts redundant. AMD is the first sponsor for OpenFPGA, a non-profit consortium developing high performance computing by running algorithms directly on FPGAs rather than processors
The OpenFPGA steering group members include many of today’s leaders in high-performance computing including Nallatech, Cray, GE Research, Oak Ridge National Labs and Sandia National Labs.
The focus for AMD in backing OpenFPGA is in the connectivity and the Torrenza programme to link to FPGA-based co-processors via its HyperTransport links.
“These activities in support of Torrenza represent fresh thinking in the application of open standards in creating collaborative research environments that can directly benefit customers,” said Michael Goddard, director, Performance Computing, AMD.
The HPC community has its own research centre that will start this month (January). The US NSF Centre for High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing has been set up under the National Science Foundation to look at using the technology for signal and image processing, cryptology, communications processing, data and text mining, optimisation, bioinformatics, and complex system simulations.
The lead institution for CHREC is the University of Florida, with partner institution at the George Washington University, while industry research partners include NASA, Honeywell, Smiths Aerospace, Rockwell Collins,
IBM Research, Sandia and Silicon Graphics Inc.  u

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