The SNAP Framework enables programmers and computer engineers to quickly create FPGA-based acceleration actions that work on server host data, as well as data from storage, flash, Ethernet, or other connected resources. SNAP, therefore, is an acronym for “Storage, Network, and Analytics Programming”.
The SNAP framework makes it easy to create accelerated actions utilizing the IBM Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI).
The framework hardware consists of a AXI-to-CAPI bridge unit, memory-mapped register I/O, host DMA, and a job management unit.
It interfaces with a user-written action (a.k.a. kernel) through an AXI-lite control interface, and gives coherent access to host memory through AXI. Optionally, it also provides access to the on-card DRAM via AXI.
A NVMe host controller-AXI bridge complements the framework for storage or database applications as an independent unit.
Software gets access to the action through the libsnap library, allowing applications to call a "function" instead of programming an accelerator.
The framework supports multi-process applications as well as multiple instantiated hardware actions in parallel.
This project is an initiative of the OpenPOWER Foundation Accelerator Workgroup. Please see here for more details:
- https://members.openpowerfoundation.org/wg/ACLWG/dashboard
- http://openpowerfoundation.org/blogs/capi-drives-business-performance/
For detailed design information, please refer to the SNAP Workbook (available soon).
The resources for generating a simulation model and an FPGA image using the SNAP framework are located in the hardware subdirectory of this repository. For information on how to use them please refer to the documentation in the
file within that directory.
Please see Bitstream_flashing.md for instructions on how to update the FPGA bitstream.
- CAPI and SNAP on IBM developerworks: https://developer.ibm.com/linuxonpower/capi/
- Education Videos
- IBM CAPI Developer's Community Forum
This code uses libcxl to access the CAPI hardware. Install it with the package manager of your Linux distribution, e.g.
sudo apt-get install libcxl-dev for Ubuntu.
For more information, please see
Access to CAPI from the FPGA card requires the Power Service Layer (PSL). For the latest PSL checkpoint download, visit the CAPI section of the IBM Portal for OpenPOWER at
- https://www.ibm.com/systems/power/openpower
Download the required files under "PSL Checkpoint Files for the CAPI SNAP Design Kit".
SNAP currently supports Xilinx FPGA devices, exclusively. For synthesis, simulation model and image build, SNAP requires the Xilinx Vivado 2017.4 tool suite.
As of now, four FPGA cards can be used with SNAP:
- Alpha-Data ADM-PCIE-KU3 http://www.alpha-data.com/dcp/products.php?product=adm-pcie-ku3
- Alpha-Data ADM-PCIE-8K5 (rev2) http://www.alpha-data.com/dcp/products.php?product=adm-pcie-8k5
- Nallatech 250S-2T with two on-card NVMe M.2 960GB drives http://www.nallatech.com/250s
- Semptian NSA121B http://www.semptian.com/index.php?_m=mod_product&_a=view&p_id=160
Building the code and running the make environment requires the usual development tools gcc, make, sed, awk. If not installed already, the installer package build-essential will set up the most important tools.
Configuring the SNAP framework via make snap_config will call a standalone tool that is based on kernel kconfig. This tool gets automatically cloned from
In order to use the menu-driven user interface for kconfig the ncurses library must be installed.
SNAP uses the generic tools to update CAPI card FPGA bitstreams from
For simulation, SNAP relies on the xterm program and on the PSL Simulation Environment (PSLSE) which is available on github (for more info see PSLSE Setup):
Simulating the NVMe host controller including flash storage devices requires licenses for the Cadence Incisive Simulator (IES) and DENALI Verification IP (PCIe and NVMe). Building images is possible without this. For more info see the Simulation README.
Before contributing to this project, please read and agree to the rules in
To simplify the sign-off, create a ".gitconfig" file in you home by executing:
$ git config --global user.name "John Doe"
$ git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com
Then, for every commit, use git commit -s to add the "signed-off by ..." message.
The master branch is protected, so you can't commit directly into the master branch. To contribute changes, please create a branch, make the changes there and issue a pull request.
By default the git repository is read-only. Users can fork the snap repository, make the changes there and issue a pull request.
Pull requests to merge into the master branch must be reviewed before they will be merged.