Emulating Transactional Memory on FPGA Multiprocessors

In this paper we discuss the development of two emulation platforms for transactional memory systems on a single Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We introduce two systems, integrating only off-the-shelf components, that respectively use a centralized and a distributed approach, presenting their hardware and software design. We analyze and compare these two architectures to a lock based multiprocessor prototype, discussing the trade-offs in terms of design complexity, performance and scalability