BittWare Releases Latest Version of BittWorks and OpenCL BSP for Arria 10 FPGA Boards

BittWare offers a complete range of FPGA boards designed to meet your needs. Their Arria 10 FPGA boards feature Intel’s high-end FPGAs to provide superior development productivity and unmatched performance. The latest boards feature PCIe x8 and x16 interfaces.

A10PL4	A10SA4
Intel Arria 10 GT/GX FPGA Low Profile PCIe Board with Dual QSFP and DDR4	Arria 10 GX Low Profile PCIe Board with QSFP and DDR4 on BittWare 'Spider' Thermal Platform
Datasheet	Datasheet

BittWare has put two decades of product design experience into creating a mature and robust suite of development tools that is tightly integrated with its FPGA products. These tools for system development and FPGA development shorten our customers’ learning curve while increasing their productivity, allowing them to reduce development costs and shorten their time to market.

OpenCL Bundle	BittWorks II Toolkit
BittWare’s OpenCL Developer’s Bundle provides the tools necessary to begin developing applications for the Altera Arria 10 or Stratix V using OpenCL. Open-CL dramatically simplifies FPGA development by enabling designers to code their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework, directly generating FPGA programming files from a pure software development flow.	The BittWorks II Toolkit is a suite of development tools for BittWare’s FPGA-based hardware that serves as the main interface between the BittWare board and the host system. The Toolkit includes drivers, libraries, utilities, and example projects for accessing, integrating, and developing applications for the BittWare board.

• OpenCL BSP for Quartus 17.1.1 is now available for the A10PL4 and A10SA4. An updated Hello World example is also available for each board.

• Version 2018.1 of the BittWorks II Toolkit is now available. This is the first toolkit release of 2018. Software releases are numbered as the N'th release of the year. Software releases do not align with FPGA development environment software releases. This is a minor release. We recommend that you upgrade if you are using the Ubuntu operating system.

•  Release highlights: 

• Support for 4.10 kernel added for Ubuntu 16.04
• Fixed Ubuntu toolkit services
• Add missing BwShell functions

Please contact Sarsen Technology for more information.

ISC High Performance 2017 - Meet with BittWare and Sarsen Technology

Event: ISC 2017
Date: Sunday 18 June - Thursday 22nd June
Location: Frankfurst, Germany
Stand: A-1431

ISC High Performance is an international event for academic, industrial and commercial disciplines to come together and share ideas and knowledge across the entire high performance computing spectrum.

The 2017 conference offers 3 days of speakers and seminars based around this years focus topics:

HPC Systems	HPC Applications & Algorithms	HPC Trends & Challenges
Exascale System Developments (Architecture & Concepts)	Life Sciences	High Performance Visualization
Processor Technologies for HPC and AI	Energy Exploration	Big Data Experiments & Big Data Analysis
Memory Outlook	Turbulences & Combustion	Quantum Annealing for Combinatorial Optimization Problems
Interconnects for HPC Systems	Advanced Material Science
Programming Models (Concepts for Exascale)	Algorithms for Extreme Scale in Practice
	Large Scale Engineering & Cloud Computing

Sarsen Technology works with BittWare to provide customers with high-performance FPGA solutions based on Intel Stratix 10/Arria 10 and Xilinx UltraScale/UltraScale+ FPGAs, for data centres, network packet processing and cyber security applications.

Sarsen Technology is exhibiting at ISC 2017 alongside BittWare and EMG2, you can find us at stand A1431. BittWare’s range of Intel and Xilinx FPGA PCIe boards will be on display, along with live demos including Deep Learning with their OpenCL Board Support Package and 100 GbE packet processing with Intel’s DPDK.

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology.

PCIe Board with Intel (Altera) Arria 10 GX FPGA Machine Learning Demonstration

BittWare took part in Super Computing 2016 last week, and used the event to showcase their must-see FPGA demos in network packet processing (NPP) and high-performance computing (HPC). If you were at the show you will also have seen BittWare's wide range of the latest Intel (formerly Altera) and Xilinx FPGA-based boards on display.



One of the demonstrations featured BittWare’s A10PL4 board, using Intel’s deep learning IP core loaded on the Arria 10 FPGA.

The A10PL4 from BittWare is an Altera Arria 10 FPGA PCIe board offering plenty of high speed serial I/O interfaces and debug support. Two QSFP cages are available, both connected to the Arria 10 FPGA removing latency in the external PHYs. The A10PL4 supports up to 32GB of DDR4 as well as flash memory with factory default and support for multiple FPGA images.

Find out more - A10PL4

 

Machine Learning

'Machine Learning' is based on the development of computer programs that can learn and create their own rules. In deep learning, a task can be learned by the machine from a vast amount of data, either in supervised or unsupervised manner.

With the Deep Learning IP customers can leverage Intel Caffe in the Data Analytics Acceleration Library (DAAL) and Intel MKL-DNN to build AlexNet- or GoogleNet-like topologies without requiring a recompilation of the FPGA.

Accelerating machine learning applications like these are an excellent fit for FPGAs and OpenCL. Up to 16 A10PL4s can be combined inside a 4U server for a total of 18M logic elements and 512 GBytes of DDR4 memory.

Find out more - Terabox

For more information please speak to one of our FPGA specialists - +44 1672 511166 or send us an email - info@sarsen.net 

www.sarsen.net

BittWare Releases Arria 10 OpenCL BSPs for Altera OpenCL SDK 16.0.2 Release

BittWare has recently announced the availability of Arria 10 FPGA Board Support Packages (BSPs) for Altera's recently released OpenCL SDK 16.0.2, including support for production silicon.

See full press release

BittWare’s OpenCL BSPs allow customers to develop applications for the Altera Arria 10 1150GX FPGA using OpenCL quickly and easily. OpenCL makes FPGA development much simpler by enabling designers to code their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework, directly generating FPGA programming files from a pure software development flow.

FPGAs can dramtically improve speed and increase responsiveness for many system designs, in markets as diverse as defense/aerospace, fintech and life sciences. BittWare offers BSP variants to support High Performance Computing (HPC) as well as Network Processing applications.


"We've worked closely with Altera to ensure that our OpenCL BSPs provide the best quality results possible," said Chad Hamilton, BittWare VP of IP, Software & Support. "For those customers who prefer to code in a C-based framework, our OpenCL BSPs provide the tools necessary to get them up and running quickly and efficiently."

OpenCL Developers Bundle
The BittWare OpenCL BSPs are included in the OpenCL Developer’s Bundle, which includes a BittWare Arria 10 or Stratix V PCIe board, the BittWorks II system development software, the Altera Quartus II soft­ware, and the Altera SDK for OpenCL. This competitvely priced development bundle gives developers access to the latest generation of high-performance FPGAs on a validated PCIe board, while also significantly reducing their time ­to market by using OpenCL to develop their application.

Benefits of OpenCL for FPGAs

• Faster time-to-market using the OpenCL C-based parallel programming language as opposed to low-level hardware description language (HDL)
• Quick design exploration by working at a higher level of design abstraction
• Easy design re-use by re-targeting existing OpenCL C code to current and future FPGAs
• Faster design completion by generating an FPGA implementation of OpenCL C code in a single step, bypassing the manual timing closure efforts and implementation of communication interfaces between the FPGA, host, and external memories.
• Increased performance by offloading performance- intensive functions from the host processor to the FPGA
• Significantly lower power than a GPU or multicore CPU by using the Altera SDK for OpenCL, which generates only the logic needed

Intel Developer Forum - 16th-18th August 2016

The Intel Developer Forum offers everything you could possibly need to make sure you're at the forefront when it comes to the latest technology.

As well as a world class forum schedule, including a keynote address from Brian Krzanich, the Technology Showcase offers you unprecedented access to the world’s most exciting products. You'll have the opportunity to ask your toughest questions, or find an ingenious solution to your design challenges.

Ready to meet you at the IDF will be the team from Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES). You will find them on stand #730, where you'll be among the first to see the latest and greatest embedded boards and solutions, based on Intel's Xeon D, Atom E3800 and Core i7 processors.

Click the button to find out more about the rugged Intel-based boards from X-ES.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

With the acquisition of Altera by Intel, the Altera SoC Developer Forum (ASDF) is now the Intel SoC FPGA Developer Forum (ISDF). ISDF is dedicated to the technology and application of SoC FPGAs across a wide range of design areas, including networking and communications, data centre and cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The theme of this year's event is Acceleration:

• Accelerate your design - with hardware acceleration in SoC FPGAs
• Accelerate your development process - with leading edge design tools and ecosystem support
• Accelerate your learning - by attending ISDF 2016

The ISDF16 event is taking place on day 3 of the Intel Developer Forum, and our friends at BittWare will be there showcasing the new Altera Arria 10 PCIe board platforms alongside their OpenCL solutions, including the popular OpenCL Bundle . The bundle includes a BittWare Arria 10 or Stratix V FPGA-based PCIe board, board support package, BittWorks II Toolkit-Lite system development software, Altera Quartus II software, and the Altera SDK for OpenCL.

For more information about the IDF, ISDF or any of the products from BittWare or X-ES please get in touch with the Sarsen Technology engineering team on +1672 511166 or send us an email - info@sarsen.net

Tech Source Changes Name to EIZO Rugged Solutions to Drive New Business in Global Rugged COTS Market

Exciting news from Tech Source!

As of April 1st, 2016 they are changing their name to EIZO Rugged Solutions Inc.

This name change is a reflection of EIZO's commitment to making a big impact in the rugged COTS market.

Here in the UK, the Condor and Tyton branded rugged graphics, video capture, encoding, streaming and recording products are rapidly increasing in popularity, thanks to their rugged design and system compatibility, based on XMC and VPX form factors.

Apart from the name change, there will be no other day to day changes with current or prospective customers. Tech Source will continue to design, develop and manufacture all Condor products in the US, as they currently do.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

High Performance XMC Graphics Processor with OpenCL™ Support

The Condor 4000 series is designed to provide very high graphics performance for OpenGL, DirectX, OpenCL, GPGPU and other applications, in rugged environments. Based on the new E8860 GPU from AMD, the Condor 4000 XMC series offers ground breaking performance with 60% better performance than the previous series.The product features 640 shader processors, 2GB graphics memory and OpenCL support. It also offers 768/48 GFLOPS single/double precision performance.

Condor 4000 Series Key Features

• Latest Embedded GPU from AMD (E8860)
• 2GB Frame Buffer
• XMC or 3U Open-VPX Form Factor
• 2D/3D Graphics Compatibility
• OpenGL 4.2/DirectX 11.1/OpenCL 1.2
• Front and Rear DVI/VGA/DisplayPort
 • Long-Term Product Availability
• Comprehensive Customer Care
• Ideal for Embedded Applications
• Optimised for DirectX 11

For more information on the name change, or to find out more about Tech Source and their range of rugged ccideo and graphics cards please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 51166, or send us an email with your enquiry.

The McHale Report Roundtable - Border Security, COTS tech and VPX systems

Each month the McHale Report hosts an online roundtable featuring experts from the defense electronics industry.

This month the report discusses the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) event and the European defense electronics market with exhibitors from the show.

Taking part this month are:
Joe Held - Director of International Sales, Omnetics Corp.
Nigel Norman - CEO - Sarsen Technology Ltd, and
Nigel Forrester - Technical Marketing Manager - Concurrent Technologies.


MCHALE REPORT: The Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) show was held this month in London. What trends regarding military designs and applications did you see emerging at the event?

HELD: We saw a continued movement towards threat detection (i.e. – advanced radar) and soldier worn electronics (communication, vision systems).

NORMAN: The biggest trend we are seeing this quarter is engineers at leading military and aerospace OEMs looking to make use of large FPGA devices in their new designs. The downside is that there is a shortage of competent VHDL & Verilog designers at many of these OEMs. This is an opportunity for specialist FPGA consulting design houses and for the implementation of initiatives such as OpenCL development for FPGA. The other continuing trend is the re-engineering of legacy CompactPC and VME systems to VPX and custom COM Express-based designs.

FORRESTER: DSEI is a wide-ranging show with military products from thermal underwear to complete battleships, but we didn’t pick up on a specific trend this time. There did appear to be more unmanned devices on display confirming a continued focus in this area. As an exhibitor we perhaps saw what we were looking for, the improved acceptance of COTS-based electronics products many of which used Intel processor technology.


See what the panelists think about the following questions by reading the full article on mil-embedded.com

McHALE REPORT: What are the hot application areas in the European military market such as unmanned systems, radar, avionics, etc.?
McHALE REPORT: How would you describe the defense electronics market in Europe -- growing, declining, or just flat? Why?
McHALE REPORT: How would you describe the demand for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products in Europe? What standards or products are hot?

Altera SDK for OpenCL Recognised at the 2014 Elektra Awards

Author - Laura

The Altera SDK for OpenCL has been selected by Electronics Weekly as its design tool of the year at the annual Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards gala in London. This award is the latest in a series of recognitions the Altera SDK for OpenCL has received since its release in 2012. 

Altera offers the industry’s only OpenCL-conformant solution in today's market that allows software programmers to easily implement OpenCL applications on FPGA accelerators.

Founded by Electronics Weekly in 2003, the Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards are the most prestigious product, technology and business awards in Europe, recognising the achievements of individuals and companies in the electronics industry. A panel of independent industry experts and representatives from Electronics Weekly selected the Altera SDK for OpenCL as the winner in its "Design Tools and Development Software” category.

Read Full Press Release 
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


BittWare’s OpenCL Developer’s Bundle provides the tools necessary to begin developing applications for the Altera Stratix V using OpenCL. OpenCL dramatically simplifies FPGA development by enabling designers to code their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework, directly generating FPGA programming files from a pure software development flow. 

The OpenCL Developer’s Bundle includes BittWare’s S5-PCIe-HQ (S5PH-Q) half-length PCIe board, the BittWorks II system development software, the Altera Quartus II software, and the Altera SDK for OpenCL. This development bundle gives developers access to the latest generation of high-performance FPGAs on a validated COTS PCI Express board, while also significantly reducing their time-to-market by using OpenCL to develop their application.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

About the Altera SDK
The Altera SDK for OpenCL allows programmers to develop algorithms with the OpenCL language and harness the performance and power efficiencies of FPGAs. The Altera SDK for OpenCL includes a rapid prototyping design flow that allows OpenCL kernel code to be emulated, debugged, optimized, profiled and re-compiled to a hardware implementation in minutes. The re-compiled kernels can be tested and run on an FPGA immediately, saving programmers weeks of development time. 

BittWare Introduces Brand New Arria 10 Family of FPGA Boards

Author - Laura Biddiscombe

Arria® FPGAs and SoCs from Altera deliver optimal performance, power, and cost efficiency in the midrange.

Built on 20 nm process technology, the Arria 10 FPGAs feature industry-leading programmable logic that integrates a rich feature set of embedded peripherals, embedded high-speed transceivers, hard memory controllers, and protocol IP controllers. In addition, Arria 10 FPGAs and SoCs are the industry’s first FPGA to integrate hardened floating-point (IEEE 754-compliant) DSP blocks that deliver breakthrough floating-point performance of up to 1.5 TFLOPS. Arria 10 SoCs are also the industry’s only 20nm FPGA to integrate a dual-core ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ hard processor system (HPS).

The brand new A10 board family from BittWare leverages the Arria 10 FPGAs exciting capabilities to build solid platforms in a variety of formats that support a wide range of challenging applications, such as network processing & security, compute & storage, instrumentation, test & measurement, broadcast, medical imaging, wireless infrastructure, and signals intelligence.

The A10 board family features flexible memory configurations, sophisticated clocking and timing options, QSFP28 cages that support 100Gbps (including 100GigE) optical transceivers, FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC), and support for the network-enabled Altera® SDK for OpenCL™.

BittWare’s Arria 10 GX-based boards will begin shipping in Q4 2014. Arria 10 GT and SoC versions will be available in Q1 2015. Contact Sarsen Technology for pricing and details.

OpenCL support for even more Altera Stratix V variants on BittWare's S5-PCIe-HQ PCIe board...

The Open Computing Language (OpenCL™) programming model is supported on Altera’s Stratix® V FPGA architecture and BittWare’s Stratix V FPGA COTS hardware, providing an incredibly powerful solution for system acceleration.

BittWare is a member of Altera’s Preferred Board Partner Program for OpenCL.

The S5-PCIe-HQ (S5PH-Q) Altera Stratix® V half-length PCIe COTS board is optimised for the most current Altera device architectures and design software, and is supported by Altera’s SDK for OpenCL. The Altera® SDK for OpenCL provides a design environment enabling users to easily implement OpenCL applications on Altera’s FPGAs.

BittWare announced at SuperComputing 2013 (Nov) that OpenCL support has now been expanded to additional Stratix V variants on their S5-PCIe-HQ (S5PH-Q) PCI Express board. FPGA options now include GSMD5, GSED8, GXEA7 and GXEAB devices.

What Are the Benefits of OpenCL for FPGAs? 

• Faster time-to-market using the OpenCL C-based parallel programming language as opposed to low-level hardware description language (HDL). 
• Quick design exploration by working at a higher level of design abstraction. 
• Easy design re-use by re-targeting existing OpenCL C code to current and future FPGAs.
• Faster design completion by generating an FPGA implementation of OpenCL C code in a single step, bypassing the manual timing closure efforts and implementation of communication interfaces between the FPGA, host, and external memories. 
• Increased performance by offloading performance-intensive functions from the host processor to the FPGA. 
• Significantly lower power by using the Altera SDK for OpenCL which generates only the logic needed to deliver. 

BittWare’s OpenCL Developer’s Bundle provides the tools necessary to begin developing applications for the Altera Stratix V using OpenCL, including the S5PH-Q board, a breakout board, the Altera Quartus II software, the Altera SDK for OpenCL, and the Altera USB Byte Blaster for downloading configuration and program data to the Stratix V FPGA.

The Open CL Developers Bundle is available at a special introductory price. For more information please contact the Sarsen Team on +44 1672 511166, or email us - info@sarsen.net

All New OpenCL Development Bundle now Available from BittWare

The OpenCL Development Bundle.

It’s new.

And it’s only available from BittWare.

BittWare joined the Altera Preferred Board Partner Program for OpenCL in May, and they have created the OpenCL Development Bundle for customers who want to take advantage of the benefits offered by using a Stratix V PCIe COTS board with Altera’s SDK for OpenCL.

Only certified boards are optimised for the most current Altera device architectures and design software. Altera works closely with selected partners to ensure that their certified boards continually meet these standards. BittWare’s S5-PCIe-HQ board has been certified by Altera to support the OpenCL SDK, and is available as part of the Development Bundle.

Included in the Development Bundle (BUN-OPENCL-001)-

• BittWare S5-PCIe-HQ Altera Stratix V GSMD5 or GSMD8 half-length PCIe board with two banks of 4GByte DDR3 SDRAM.
• S5PH-Q Board Support Package.
• BittWare BittWorks II Toolkit application development software for BittWare COTS boards.
• BittWare Breakout Board (BWBO) providing front panel access to signals and interfaces on the S5PH-Q.
• Altera Quartus® II software.
• Altera Software Development Kit (SDK) for OpenCL.
• Altera USB Byte Blaster to download configuration or program data into the Stratix V.

For more information about pricing, availability or technical support please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or email us - info@sarsen.net.

What is OpenCL?
The OpenCL (Open Computing Language) standard is the first royalty-free, open standard framework that enables users to write programs that execute across heterogeneous systems including CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs. It allows the use of a C-based language for developing code across these different platforms.

'Financial February' from Sarsen Technology!

You’ve reached the Sarsen Blog. Lucky you!

If it’s your first visit, welcome. If you’ve been here before, welcome back! If you accidentally clicked the wrong link you should stick around… You might learn something!

We started 2013 with Green Month. January has seen our blog feature some pretty cool technology involved in renewable energy, global warming data collection, utility monitoring and wind turbines, as well as our super-informative Spotlight Series.

This month is ‘Financial February’. We’ll be bringing you all the latest product news for the high speed financial trading market, available from our 10 US manufacturers. We will also be sharing all the insider news and views from our exhibition stand at the Low Latency Summit on February 19th in London. We’ll be on stand 105 alongside BittWare and their latest Altera Stratix V FPGA hardware and software technology, with a very special feature showcasing the OpenCL tools designed for low-latency financial trading.

If that wasn’t enough we’ll also be shining the Spotlight on another member of the Sarsen team, and sharing some more trade secrets about the exciting technology we are lucky enough to be involved with.

See you on Tuesday for the first Sarsen Spotlight post of February 2013!

Spotlight On… The First Exhibition of the Year!

It’s still only January, but we're not letting the snow hold us back - we are already gearing up for our first event of the year!

Sarsen Technology will be at the Low Latency Summit with BittWare, showcasing the latest Altera Stratix V FPGA hardware for financial trading.

Held at the America Square Conference Centre on 19th Feb 2013, the Low Latency Summit focuses on the evolution of high performance technology underpinning profitable automated trading strategies, with a focus on real life experience from the European marketplace.

This is the only event for the financial markets to examine these kinds of technologies, and align them to the trading process. Alongside the conference program, an 'exhibits' area will allow real-life solutions to be demonstrated.

BittWare recently announced special pricing on their S5-PCIe-HQ PCIe COTS board, specifically for use with Altera's Software Development Kit (SDK) for OpenCL. The Altera SDK for OpenCL enables FPGAs to work in concert with the host processor to accelerate parallel computation, at a fraction of the power compared to hardware alternatives.

Come and meet the BittWare and Sarsen Technology teams on Stand 105 to learn more about the very latest Altera Stratix V FPGA hardware and software technology including the OpenCL tools designed for low-latency financial trading applications.

Full details of the event can be found on the www.low-latency.com web site.

We look forward to seeing you there!!

Sarsen By Numbers - Friday Facts from the Team at Sarsen Technology

12 – The number of years Sarsen Technology has been supplying embedded hardware solutions to our UK customers.

10 – The number of US-based manufacturers we currently represent.

5 – Exciting new board variants from VersaLogic released this year.

8 – Ways to contact us….
The obvious ones; email, phone and direct contact through the website.
The retro choice – fax and snail mail.
For the social butterfly – LinkedIn, Twitter or even a visit to the office here in Marlborough. We like visitors….

830 – The number of hits on our blog last month. We are actually very interesting….

3 – New COM Express modules from Extreme Engineering. For more info click here…

25 – days until Christmas!!!

5 – Twitter feeds from the team here at Sarsen.
@Laura_Sarsen
@Nigel_Sarsen
@Robbie_Sarsen
@Embedded_Tim
@Sarsen_Tech

24 – Current issue of NewsBytes, released today. There are lots of new technology releases from our manufacturing partners this month including OpenCL support for Altera Stratix V FPGA COTS boards, plus a new technical paper on "many-core" strategy written by Jeff Milrod, President of BittWare.

½ - The new S5-PCIe-HQ from BittWare is a half-length PCIe x8 card based on the Altera Stratix V FPGA. Check it out here.

2 – Number of times we have had cake in the office this week. Soon to be 3.

Have a great weekend!

Tech Source in New Deal with RunTime, A Sarsen Facelift, and a Birthday!

Today is Tims' birthday.  

No, we aren't going to mention ages! Happy birthday Tim.

This week Tech Source have announced their new partnership with RunTime Computing Solutions to accelerate GPGPU (general purpose graphics processing unit) development on its Condor 3000 XMC video graphics cards. This will make it much easier for customers using Tech Source boards to develop high performance GPGPU applications in the OpenCL world. For more info please contact us.

The Sarsen Technology LinkedIn page has had a bit of a facelift. Follow our page to keep up to date with new products and news from the team.

 

Remember Remember.......

Sandwiched in between the festivities of Hallowe'en and Christmas is Bonfire Night. A time to remember the Gunpowder plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes was caught guarding explosives hidden under the House of Lords, in an attempt to assassinate King James I of England.

Fireworks date back to 7th century China, where they were invented. Also known as ‘Explosive Pyrotechnics’, fireworks are actually designed not to explode. To give a good visual show the ingredients need to burn slowly, in order to produce the colours and sparkles found in today’s displays. You learn something new every day! 

But don't forget, while that Youtube video of the guy shooting fireworks from various parts of his body is really funny, fireworks are dangerous, so be safe this weekend.