Run-Time Reconfiguration for HyperTransport coupled FPGAs using ACCFS

In this paper we present a solution where only one FPGA is needed in a host coupled system, in which the FPGA can be reconfigured by a user application during run-time without loosing the host link connection. A hardware infrastructure on the FPGA and the software framework ACCFS (ACCelerator File System) on the host system is provided to the user which allow easy handling of reconfiguration and communication between the host and the FPGA. Such a system can be used for offloading compute kernels on the FPGA in high performance computing or exchanging functionality in highly available systems during run-time without loosing the host link during reconfiguration. The implementation was done for a HyperTransport coupled FPGA. The design of a HyperTransport cave was extended in such a way that it provides an infrastructure for run-time reconfigurable (RTR) modules.