BittWare S5PH-Q, Stratix V GX/GS, 2x QSFP – Sky Blue Microsystems GmbH

BittWare S5PH-Q | Altera Stratix V GX/GS FPGA | 16GB | 2x QSFP | 2x 40GigE | High Speed Trading

BittWare's S5PCIe-HQ (S5PH-Q) is a half-length PCIe x8 card based on the high-bandwidth, power-efficient Altera Stratix V GX or GS FPGA. Designed for high-end applications, the Stratix V provides a high level of system integration and flexibility for I/O, routing, and processing. Over 16 GBytes of on-board memory includes DDR3 and QDRII/II+. Two front-panel QSFP+ cages allow two 40GigE interfaces (or eight 10GigE) direct to the FPGA for reduced latency, making the board ideal for high frequency trading and networking applications. The S5PH-Q also features a Board Management Controller (BMC) for advanced system monitoring, which greatly simplifies platform management. All of these features combine to make the S5PH-Q a versatile and efficient solution for creating and deploying high-performance FPGA computing systems.

The Altera Stratix V FPGA is optimized for high-performance, high-bandwidth applications with integrated transceivers supporting backplanes and optical modules. It supports 1.6 Tbps of serial switching capability and up to 3,926 18 x 18 variable precision multipliers. The Stratix V also provides PCI Express x8 via a hard IP block and supports configuration over PCI Express using the existing PCI Express link in your application. For additional flexibility, the Stratix V supports partial core reconfiguration on-the-fly while other portions of the design are running. The FPGA is supported by BittWare’s FPGA Development Kit, which provides board support IP and integration.

Intel Stratix V GX/GS Half-Length PCIe Board with Dual QSFP+/SFP+, DDR3, and QDRII+

High-Speed Networking and I/O

The S5PH-Q provides a variety of interfaces for high-speed serial I/O as well as debug support. Two QSFP+ cages are available on the front panel, each supporting 40GigE or four 10GigE channels. The QSFP+ SerDes channels are connected directly to the Stratix V FPGA, thus removing the latency of external PHYs. The QSFP+ cages can optionally be adapted for SFP+.

Two SerDes lanes are available via two SATA connectors to connect external storage devices or provide direct board-to-board communication. The x8 PCIe interface provides 8 SerDes lanes to the Stratix V FPGA. USB 2.0, RS-232, and JTAG interfaces are available for debug and programming support. The board also supports timestamping with provision for a 1 PPS and reference clock input as well as RS-232 for connection to GPS or other time sources.

Memory

Several on-board memory banks are available to the Stratix V FPGA. Memory includes up to 16 GBytes of DDR3 SDRAM (two 64-bit banks) and up to 72 MBytes QDRII/II+ (four 18-bit banks). The S5PH-Q also provides flash memory for storing multiple FPGA images.

Board Management Controller

This boards‘s advanced system monitoring subsystem features a Board Management Controller (BMC), which accepts Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) messaging protocol commands.

The BMC features include control of power and resets, monitoring of board sensors, FPGA boot loader, voltage overrides, configuration of programmable clocks, access to I2C bus components, field upgrades, and IPMI messaging.

Access to the BMC is via PCIe or USB. BittWare’s BittWorks II Toolkit also provides utilities and libraries for communicating with the BMC components at a higher, more abstract level, allowing developers to remotely monitor the state of the board.

BittWorks II Toolkit

BittWare offers complete software support for this card with its BittWorks II software tools. The BittWorks II Toolkit serves as the main interface between the BittWare board and the host system. The Toolkit includes drivers, libraries, utilities, and example projects for accessing, integrating, and developing applications for the BittWare board.

FPGA Development Kit

BittWare's FPGA DevKit provides FPGA board support IP and integration for BittWare's Altera FPGA-based boards. The FDK includes FPGA components that provide preconfigured physical interfaces, infrastructure, and examples, drastically cutting development time and easily integrating into existing FPGA development environments.

Working example projects are available for each board which illustrate how to move data between the board’s different interfaces. Supported interfaces include DDR4, DDR3, DDR2, QDR2/+, PCIe, 10GbE, LVDS, SerDes, and Double Data Rate I/O. All example projects are available on BittWare’s Developer Site.

BittWare Firmware and Financial Solutions Partners

BittWare offers firmware for the Stratix V FPGA on the S5 family PCIe boards, targeted specifically for high frequency trading applications. BittWare’s FPGA Development Kit provides a solid base for your financial application, including the following:

BittWare S5PCIe-HQ accelerator diagram showing hardware elements e.g. 2x QSFP-plus cages on front panel connected directly to FPGA via 8 SerDes supports 40 GigE or four 10 GigE.
Hardware accelerator diagram: BittWare S5PCIe-HQ with 2x QSFP+ cages on front panel connected directly to FPGA via 8 SerDes (no external PHY).

Product Data

BittWare S5PCIe-HQ is a PCIe slot card with Intel Stratix VGX or GS FPGA, up to 952,000 logic elements, and up to 62 Mb of embedded memory per FPGA.
S5PCIe-HQ is a half-length, standard-height PCIe slot card with Intel Stratix VGX or GS FPGA.
BittWorks II Toolkit include BwMonitor app provides a view into the board management capabilities like live board power and temperature display of BittWare hardware.
BwMonitor is a part of the BittWorks II Toolkit: provides live board power and temperature display of BittWare hardware.