PRGA: An Open-Source FPGA Research and Prototyping Framework

Abstract

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are being used in a fast-growing range of scenarios, and heterogeneous CPU-FPGA systems are being tapped as a possible way to mitigate the challenges posed by the end of Moore's Law. This growth in diverse use cases has fueled the need to customize FPGA architectures for particular applications or application domains. While high-level FPGA models can help explore the FPGA architecture space, as FPGAs move to more advanced design nodes, there is an increased need for low-level FPGA research and prototyping platforms that can be brought all the way to fabrication.