Challenges of virtualization FPGA in a cloud context
Rym Skhiri, Virginie Fresse, Jean-Paul Jamont, Benoît Suffran · 2017
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) have been known as high efficient devices providing architectural flexibility, reconfigurability and high timing performances for embedded real time systems. For highly critical applications, FPGA provides low power consumption, significant resource optimization and can meet the real time constraints. Data acquisition systems and many measurement systems for industrial applications are based on standalone platforms integrating FPGA. Now the FPGA are considered in cloud computing for which the concept of “cloud FPGA” has been emerging over the last few years. Cloud FPGA leads to a set of challenges to be solved and clarifying what is the Cloud FPGA and which types of cloud FPGA exist should be detailed. In this context, the paper reviews the main challenges of FPGA, either mono or multi based sensor network applications. We show that these challenges based on each step of the design flow can play a key role in the future of sensor networks when proposing a cloud FPGA infrastructure.