Let me ask some really basic questions here. What is the difference between an fpga development board and just an fpga board? Also, since most of my code that I want to speed up has been ported to 64 bits years ago what is there if any difference between 32 bit abd 64 bit linux aspertains to an fpga? I know these may seem elementary to some, but to someone who is very new to fpgas they are not. Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance. Respectfully, Newport_j
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#3710752
Hi, to 64 Bit: This only matters for PROGRAMS that run on a processor inside the FPGA - like Cortex-A9 Cores (32 Bit) in Zynq. In the FPGA fabric for actual data processing, you can use ANY resolution you want. Also 62 bits, or e.g. 144 bits if you need it. Just a question of # of ressources you want to throw at the problem. > What is the difference between an fpga development board > and just an fpga board? Development is - obviously - for development purposes. Other Boards might be intended to go into customer products or be used directly in a productive environment (such as a PCIe accelerator Card).
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#3710904
James Yunker wrote: > Also, since most of my code that I want to speed up has been ported to > 64 bits years ago what is there if any difference between 32 bit abd 64 > bit linux aspertains to an fpga? FPGAs are completely different to microprocessors, so speeding up an algorithm by simply bringing the code to FPGA will not work. A FPGA can implement a microprocessor which can than run Linux, but this processor and Linux wll be much slower than a high end microprocessor, An FPGA brings you only an advantage if implement part of the algorithm in hardware. An example would be a cryptographic operation: Instead of having a sequence of xor and shift operations executed by the processor you have a hardware unit, which is loaded with 1024 bit and all the shifting, xor-ing is done in a few clock cylces by hardware. But even in that case you have to ponder the overhead time needed to laod the hardware unit.