===== FPGA Cluster =====


VHS has some powerful FPGA boards, on semi-permanent loan from Austin, that are old decommissioned bit** **coin miners. They are no longer useful for this, they cost substantially more in power than they generate!


What they are good is for simulating and benchmarking your own FPGA projects! Basically a prototyping platform for custom designs that can then be moved into cheaper platforms, or sent off for ASIC masking (please please someone do this).


==== Tech specs ====

  * http://www.ztex.de/usb-fpga-1/usb-fpga-1.15y.e.html
  * 4x Spartan 6 LX150 per board
  * 8 boards total
  * Raspberry Pi 1 running as controller
  * Connected to the internal network (currently) on 172.16.0.137, hostname FPGAwesome, root/standard password


==== To run ====

Log into host computer (IP above).

There is an example set of software at:

/home/vhs/ztex/ztex-ms1/examples/usb-fpga-1.15y/intraffic/

To run a test benchmark, run:

java -cp InTraffic.jar Intraffic

==== To develop ====

Comb the manufacturer website (above) for tutorials.

In the example filesystem (path in previous section):
  * make should compile everything.
  * The .java file is host software source
  * The .jar file is the compiler host software
  * The .c file is the FX2 microcontroller firmware source
  * The .ihx is the compiler firmware, to be loaded by the host software
  * The fpga folder is the Verilog FPGA source
  * The .bit file is the compiler Verilog, to be loaded to the FPGA by the host software