OpenCL Framework for a CPU, GPU, and FPGA Platform

With the availability of multi-core processors, high capacity FPGAs, and GPUs, a heterogeneous platform with tremendous raw computing capacity can be constructed consisting of any number of these computing elements. However, one of the major challenges for constructing such a platform is the lack of a standardized framework under which an application’s computational task and data can be easily and effectively managed amongst the computing elements. In this thesis work such a framework is developed based on OpenCL (Open Computing Language). An OpenCL API and run time framework, called O4F, was implemented to incorporate FPGAs in a platform with CPUs and GPUs under the OpenCL framework. O4F help explore the possibility of using OpenCL as the framework to incorporate FPGAs with CPUs and GPUs. This thesis details the findings of this first-generation implementation and provides recommendations for future work.MAS