oneAPI Board Support Package for Agilex 7 M-Series FPGA

Question

Hello,

I have recently purchased an Intel Agilex 7 M-series FPGA for a university research project the Embedded Systems Lab (EPFL, Switzerland) and I am seeking technical support to program with it oneAPI DPC++/C++.

I don't have any experience building a Board Support Package (BSP). Is there a recipe or prebuild BSP for this FPGA to program it with oneAPI? Upon receiving the board, I performed basic tests using the Board Test System (BTS) to verify its overall functionality. However, I am unable to use some of the more advanced features of the board, which are the primary reasons for our purchase. Any help on how to use HBM2e and CXL capabilities with the oneAPI workflow would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Denisa

whitepau_altera · Answer

Which board do you have? our website lists some specific boards that have a path to generate a BSP using our board vendor tools (OFS) and a list of vendor boards that have vendor-supported BSPs.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/tools/oneapi/fpga.html#choose-platform

denisa · Answer

Dear Whitepeau,

Thank you for the resource, unfortunately, these BSPs are for the Agilex 7 I-Series and F-Series Dev Kits. I have an Agilex 7 M-Series Development Kit - HBM2e Edition (3x F-Tile & 1x R-Tile): https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/details/fpga/development-kits/agilex/agm039.html. Concretely, I purchased the one from Mouser.

Would any of these BSPs give me support to use all the resources of my Agilex 7 M-Series? If not, who can help me generate a BSP for this FPGA?

Regards,

Denisa

whitepau_altera · Answer

Hello Denisa,I am afraid that there is no BSP for the kit you have, I expect we chose not to build a BSP for it because it has no PCIe connector (although the product page mentions PCIe connectivity is possible with an expansion board). oneAPI FPGA acceleration assumes a PCIe card (e.g. on of the devkits listed on our landing page, or a partner board listed in this document on our landing page).Instead of building a full oneAPI BSP, you can also use the oneAPI DPC++/C++ compiler to create IP that you can integrate using a platform designer system. We demonstrate this in the Platform Designer code sample, and the Nios V reference design. You can learn more about IP interface customization by studying the HLS Flow Interfaces code samples as well.Manually integrating your IP with Platform Designer (or SystemVerilog/VHDL if you are so inclined)  gives you the ability to accelerate the embedded HPS, so you are not tied to an x86-64 host CPU.Did you engage with an Intel/Altera salesperson to get that board? If you are interested in accelerating an x86-64 host system, you should reach out to them and see if they can help you get ahold of a partner board so you can avoid building a BSP and manually integrating a system.

denisa · Answer

Dear Whitepau, Thank you very much for the detailed response. For my research project, having a standalone, host-independent solution is desirable, so I would use the Platform Designer  and Nios V reference design flow for a final solution deployment or demonstrator.However,  the deployment/programming flow seems very cumbersome for design space exploration and rapid prototyping. I am searching for a way to connect the Agilex 7 M-series Dev Kit by PCIe to a x86-64 host system featuring  2x Intel Xeon Gold 6416H and 4 PCIe 5.0 slots. My FPGA has 2x MCIO connectors with PCIe 5 support.  In theory, I should be able to connect FPGA with 2 MCIO cables to a MCIO-PCIe Gen5 adapter that is connected to the host.  Is there a recommended set of MCIO cables and MCIO-PCIe adapters that have been tested and with Agilex 7 M-series dev kit? I found this MCIO-PCIe adapter together with two MCIO SFF-TA-1016 8i cables, but I could find no cross-reference to supported hosts and FPGA devices. Could you point me to someone who can help me with choosing the right components for the setup?Assuming I manage to connect the Agilex 7 M-series Dev Kit by PCIe to a x86-64 host, can you point me to someone who can help building a oneAPI compatible BSP?  Thank you for your help, Denisa

whitepau_altera · Answer

Hi Denisa,thanks for the reply.If your final deployment will be managed by a Nios® V softcore processor or even ARM Hardened processor system (HPS), then I would not recommend you to try and build a custom BSP, as that is its own complicated deployment flow  (If I haven't dissuaded you, there is further documentation available in our OFS user guide)The board user guide suggests the following cable for PCIe connection:Amphenol Part Number HMC74-0631@BoonBengT_Altera do you have any recommendations for connecting the Agilex 7 M-Series Development Kit - HBM2e Edition (3x F-Tile &amp; 1x R-Tile) to a PCIe slot on a host PC?

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oneAPI Board Support Package for Agilex 7 M-Series FPGA

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