File system access from reconfigurable FPGA hardware processes in borph

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of BO-RPH's kernel file system layer that provides FPGA processes direct access to the general file system. Using a semantics resembling that of conventional UNIX file I/Os, an FPGA accesses the file system through a special hardware system call interface. By extending the semantics of a UNIX pipe, a single file system access mechanism is used for both regular file I/O, as well as for hardware/software and hardware/hardware data streaming. An FPGA design may switch between different communication modes dynamically during run time by means of file redirection. Design trade-offs among system manageability, user usability and application performance are explored. An example of constructing a video processing system during run time using commodity software and FPGA applications connected by pipes is used to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of such FPGA-centric file system access capability. ©2008 IEEE.