Testing of FPGA-based Systems: Challenges & Solutions

Alyona BuldaSenior QA Project ManagerExactpro

Oleg PavlikovSenior NFT AnalystExactpro

Open Access Quality Assurance & Related Software Development for Financial Markets Tel: +7 495 640 24 60 , +1 415 830 38 49 www.exactpro.com 2

Testing of FPGA-Based Systems: Testing of FPGA-Based Systems: Challenges & SolutionsChallenges & Solutions

Open Access Quality Assurance & Related Software Development for Financial Markets Tel: +7 495 640 2460, +1 415 830 38 49www.exactpro.com

Alyona Bulda, ExactproOleg Pavlikov, Exactpro

• Introduction• Why use FPGAs?• FPGA-based systems: the reasons for main QA challenges• The main testing challenges• Fascinating issue types (QA approaches to escalate them and

proper QA coverage)• Ways to tackle the challenges• Thank you

Testing of FPGA-Based Systems: Challenges & Solutions

Why use FPGAs?

• Performance

• Throughput

• Reliability

FPGA-based systems: the reasons for main QA challenges

• Algorithm implementation (partially on hardware and partially on software)• Why is this happening?

• to simplify the hardware logic due to its limitation• to find an acceptable combination of various parameters (for example,

latency vs. functional complexity)• Logic duplication (same parts of logic have to be implemented on both

FPGA and software)• Should QA environments cost a lot?

The main testing challenges

• Cost efficient environment is a challenge1

• Maintainability and operability is a challenge2

• Test cases development is a challenge3

Fascinating issue types(QA approach to escalate them and proper QA coverage)

• Double coverage SW vs. FPGA parts:

• data type representation

• data structure implementation

• same logic duplication

• Data flow processing - issues at the confluence of SW & FPGA• depending on SW, which in certain points can

significantly delay FPGA-related processing• when simplifying FPGA logic to reach low latency,

certain validation is excluded• different hardware resources can be used by SW and

FPGA for the same purposes (for example, source of clock timings)

Ways to tackle the challenges

• Environment availability:• low cost FPGA at initial QA processes (which is not always a

case due to limitations of implemented logic)• management planning for HW budget

• re-design of the implementation part:• exclude duplication of implementation logic in SW and FPGA• move the whole functionality to FPGA

Ways to tackle the challenges

• Maintainability and operability enhancements:• make deployment transparent• the possibility to keep several FPGA firmware versions on the same card• OS driver – ideally, a single version of driver should be used (even if some

changes happened in firmware)

Ways to tackle the challenges

Thank you