A novel platform for launching and using field-programmable gate arrays (FPFA) custom computing machines (CCMs) in clouds and data centers is proposed. Based on a developed FPGA virtualization scheme, it allows users to create independent computing services on network-attached standalone FPGAs. The interface of the virtual FPGA (vFPGA)-based CCM is automatically generated by a virtualization layer and based on the user's specifications. An FPGA hypervisor has been developed that can be easily integrated with any cloud management tool. It allows the users to launch/use/tear down vFPGA-based CCMs in a similar manner to conventional virtual machines (VMs). A complete prototype of the proposed platform has been realized and tested with a streamed image processing application. Its performance was 3-4x and ∼1.4-2.4x times better than an SW implementation on a VM and a powerful server, respectively. Compared with other platforms for FPGA attachment to a cloud or datacenter, the proposed platform has relatively low overhead in terms of FPGA resources while providing the highest level of abstraction and virtualization. INDEX TERMS Reconfigurable computing, FPGAs, custom computing machines, cloud computing, streamed applications.
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