vFPGAmanager, the FPGA Virtualization Framework that enables high performance and accelerators over-commitment

Virtual Open Systems at SDN NFV World Congress 2018, The Hague, Netherlands

This video demo shows the vFPGAmanager demonstrator presented by Virtual Open Systems at SDN NFV World Congress 2018, The Hague, Netherlands. vFPGAmanager is an FPGA virtualization framework that aims to provide efficient and high performance FPGA acceleration for virtualization solutions such as virtual machines, containers and unikernels.

The vFPGAmanager framework is composed of hardware and software components that enable accelerators direct access for guest applications in the fields of networking (VNFs and virtual switch acceleration), High Performance Computing (HPC), automotive, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, vFPGAmanager exposes specific monitoring and control acceleration APIs, that enable on demand deployment of hardware components in an orchestrated manner.

vFPGAmanager demonstrator configuration

The video demonstration below showcases the following vFPGAmanager features:

• Accelerators direct assignment: vFPGAmanager is compliant with SR-IOV and enables guests direct access to the FPGA hardware accelerators. This helps achieving best performance in a portable way.
• Accelerators remapping: The vFPGAmanager control and monitoring interface allows to dynamically change guest-accelerator mappings, maximizing the flexibility of remote orchestration tools. It is used when a guest needs to change accelerator implementation at run-time.
• Accelerators time-sharing: The vFPGAmanager framework integrates a context switch management engine that enables FPGA accelerator over-commitment. This optimizes system efficiency, enabling multiple guests to be connected to the same hardware accelerator.