FPGA-based Computing in the Era of AI and Big Data

Abstract

The continued rapid growth of data, along with advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to extract knowledge from such data, is reshaping the computing ecosystem landscape. With AI becoming an essential part of almost every end-user application, our current computing platforms are facing several challenges. The data-intensive nature of current AI models requires minimizing data movement. Furthermore, interactive intelligent datacenter-scale services require scalable and real-time solutions to provide a compelling user experience. Finally, algorithmic innovations in AI demand a flexible and programmable computing platform that can keep up with this rapidly changing field. We believe that these trends and their accompanying challenges present tremendous opportunities for FPGAs. FPGAs are a natural substrate to provide a programmable, near-data, real-time, and scalable platform for AI analytics. FPGAs are already embedded in several places where data flows throughout the computing ecosystem (e.g., smart network/storage, near image/audio sensors). Intel FPGAs are System-in-Package (SiP), scalable with 2.5D chiplets. They are also scalable at datacenter-scale as reconfigurable cloud, enabling real-time AI services. Using overlays, FPGAs can be programmed through software without needing long-running RTL synthesis. With further innovations, and leveraging their existing strengths, FPGAs can leap forward to realize their true potentials in AI analytics. In this talk, we first discuss the current trends in AI and big data. We then present trends in FPGA and opportunities for FPGAs in the era of AI and big data. Finally, we highlight selected research efforts to seize some of these opportunities: (1) 2.5D SiP integration of FPGA and AI chiplets to improve the performance and efficiency of AI workloads, and (2) AI overlay for FPGA to facilitate software-level programmability and compilation-speed.