Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponent Calculation on FPGA using High-Level Synthesis Tools

Abstract

As Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) computing capabilities continue to grow, also does the interest on building scientific accelerators around them. Tools like Xilinx’s High-Level Synthesis (HLS) help to bridge the gap between traditional high-level languages such as C and C++, and low-level hardware description languages such as VHDL and Verilog. In this report, we study the implementation of a fluid dynamics application, the Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponent (FTLE) calculation, on FPGA using HLS. We provide speed and resource-consumption results for 2- and 3-dimensional cases.