Practical Debug for Dataflow Computations on One or More FPGAs

Interest in multi-FPGA designs is higher than ever, but debugging support has not keptup. This is a problem because it increases the costs of developing for FPGAs and presents a major obstacle for their use in data centres. This work proposes two tools that together forma practical multi-FPGA debugging solution.Our first tool, Debug Governors, can pause, log, drop, or inject data into any stream. Theseoperations enable single-stepping, unit testing, and interfacing with software. Hundreds ofDebug Governors can fit in a single FPGA and, because they are transparent when inactive,can be left “dormant” in production designs. We also provide a user interface. Our second tool, FFShark, is a Wireshark-compatible packet filter. It allows interactive debugging of 100 Gbps network links, and can scale to faster speeds. It is completely transparent even when active, and is suitable for performance debugging.M.A.S