BEEKeeper Remote Management and Debugging of Large FPGA Clusters

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BEEKeeperRemote Management and Debugging of
Large FPGA Clusters

• Terry Filiba
• Navtej Sadhal

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Background

• RAMP Research Accelerator for Multiple
  Processors
• Large array of Berkeley Emulation Engine (BEE2)
  modules
• Each BEE2 contains 5 Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGAs
• 1 Master (control) FPGA
• 4 Slave FPGAs
• 2 JTAG serial chains
• Master can program slaves over 1 chain
• Or slaves can be individually accessed over the
  other

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Background

• CASPER Center for Astronomy Signal Processing
  and Electronics Research
• Processing is cheaper than building large
  antennas
• Instruments are remotely deployed at antenna
  arrays
• Using large arrays of BEE2 boards to develop
  instruments for radio astronomy (currently
  correlators, beamformers, and spectrometers)

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BEE2 Module
image from RAMP project http//ramp.eecs.berkeley
.edu/index.php?pictures
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RAMP Blue
images from RAMP project http//ramp.eecs.berkele
y.edu/index.php?pictures
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What is JTAG?
image from Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/ImageJtag_chain.svg

• Transports data serially throughout multiple
  chips
• TMS test mode
• TCK clock
• TDI test data in
• TDO test data out

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What is JTAG?
image from Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/ImageJtag_chain.svg

• Not very scalable
• Each clock represents 1 bit of data moving
  through the system
• In order to get test data into device 3 it has to
  go through device 1 and 2
• Only suitable for a few chips daisy-chained
  together

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Background

• On-chip debugging with ChipScope
• FPGA design can include debugging module
• Transmits debugging signal information over JTAG
  to host computer
• Host computer running ChipScope software receives
  data over parallel or USB cable

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Problem

• We need to talk to individual FPGAs or boards to
  use ChipScope
• Normal parallel or USB approach is limited
• Does not scale
• Requires physical access to board

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Proposed Solution

• Client driver
• Intercepts ChipScope software communications and
  transmits it over TCP/IP
• BEEKeeper
• Mini-module with Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA and
  Ethernet port
• MicroBlaze soft core runs C programs
• Receives data from host over TCP/IP and passes it
  on to BEE2 over JTAG

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BEEKeeper Module
image from Avnet http//www.em.avnet.com/img_shar
ed/evk/df2df2usa/spartan3miniphoto.jpg
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Proposed Solution
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Proposed Solution

• User can change which BEE2 is being accessed by a
  local software switch
• Software can multiplex across many BEE2s to
  aggregate data
• User can remotely access BEE2s from anywhere with
  an Internet connection
• Ideal for CASPER project

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Implementation
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Future Work

• Extend the client software to connect to multiple
  boards simultaneously
• Program multiple FPGAs at once
• Debug multiple FPGAs at once
• Need a way to aggregate the data received from
  the servers
• Integrate BEEKeeper hardware onto board to be
  debugged (BEE)

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Questions?