Using Field Programmable Gate Arrays in a Beowulf Cluster
Abstract
The Robust Passive Sonar (RPS) program has developed a 16-node Beowulf cluster with integrated Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for a computationally intensive signal processing application. The use of FPGAs within the cluster significantly increases the processing capacity of the cluster at low cost. They also have an added benefit of having a relatively small footprint and therefore having minimal impact on space requirements. The RPS system provides a real-time processing capability that passively localizes an acoustic noise source in three dimensions including bearing, range, and depth. Using the bearing and range estimates, a geographic situation plot is developed recording contact position, course and speed. The application is computationally demanding, requiring 500 Gigaflops per second or half a Tera-FLOP of sustained processing in order to evaluate the entire search region. This processing capacity has been achieved through the use of five FPGA boards which allow the system to beamform to 10 million points in space. This presentation will investigate the issues associated with developing and using a Beowulf cluster. A parallel, heterogeneous computing environment with embedded FPGAs provides many unique challenges including run-time configuration, system management, and efficient parallel programming. These critical issues along with performance and lessons learned will be highlighted.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA433398
Entities
People
- Matthew Krzych
Organizations
- Naval Undersea Warfare Center