Research on board to board communication for a reconfigurable computing system.

Board-to-board communications are very important for interconnecting multiple FPGA boards in a reconfigurable computing cluster. Researchers at Baylor University have developed a reconfigurable computing cluster that uses the Impulse C language to provide a platform for software designers to design hardware-accelerated systems. This thesis describes the development of two Impulse C implementations for the interconnection of Xilinx FPGA boards; one using parallel and one using serial communication hardware. Impulse C is used to design a software-numerical-communication function integrated into the hardware communication system. The hardware communication protocol is designed and implemented using VHDL and Xilinx’s Embedded Development Kit (EDK). The performance of the two communication systems are tested and compared by simulation and real time hardware test applications. The advantages and disadvantages between the two different communication systems are explored as part of this research.