Dissecting Xeon + FPGA: Why the integration of CPUs and FPGAs makes a power difference for the datacenter: Invited Paper

Abstract

Intel's Xeon roadmap includes package-integrated FPGAs in every new generation. In this talk, we will dissect why this is such a powerful combination at this time of great change in datacenter workloads. We will show how power savings within the CPU complex is a significant multiplier for power savings in the datacenter as a whole. Focusing on the domain of machine learning, we will present the recent evolution of data types and operators, and make the case that FPGAs are the path to facilitate this continued evolution. Finally, we will discuss the criticality of the close coupling of the CPU and the FPGA. This coupling facilitates high bandwidth and low latency communication that is required for the development, debugging and deployment of heterogeneous applications.