Using Floating-Point Arithmetic on FPGAs to Accelerate Scientific N-Body Simulations

Using Floating-Point Arithmetic on FPGAs to AccelerateScientific N-Body SimulationsGerhard Lienhart, Andreas Kugel and Reinhard MännerDept. for Computer Science V, University of Mannheim, B6-26A, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany{lienhart,kugel,maenner}@ti.uni-mannheim.despecialization on an application. But in science the exactAbstract mathematical formulation of a simulation problem isoften subject to change. This aspect foils the approach ofThis paper investigates the usage of floating-point building an ASIC for the majority of applications.arithmetic on FPGAs for N-Body simulation in natural FPGA based machines are somewhere betweenscience. The common aspect of these applications is the general-purpose computers and ASIC-based computers.simple computing structure where forces between a They enable building of application specific computationparticle and its surrounding particles are summed up. The units but preserve the possibility of redesigning theserole of reduced precision arithmetic is discussed, and our structures at any time. Due to the limits of programmableimplementation of a floating-point arithmetic library with logic resources on an FPGA they are to date mainly usedparameterized operators is presented. On the base of this for integer and bit-level processing tasks. But with thelibrary, implementation strategies of complex arithmetic recent progress in FPGA technology these chips are moreunits are discussed. Finally the realization of a fully and ...