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Altera OpenCL support for Stratix III device

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi, 

 

I was looking to try out Altera OpenCL sdk. I was wondering if a Terasic DE3 board with a Stratix III device would support OpenCL.  

Stratix V is 'recommended' for OpenCL but I dont see any references to previous Stratix devices in the documentations. 

 

Thanks, 

Nimit
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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There is an investment on the board vendor's part to make their board OpenCL ready. As a result I don't think Terasic would go back to their Stratix III based boards and spend time creating the necessary infrastructure needed for that. So it's not impossible but from a priorities perspective I would think Terasic would spend their time on new boards instead. 

 

The way I look at it, don't think of it as the FPGA supporting OpenCL but rather the entire solution which includes the dev board as well as underlining software infrastructure that allows Altera's OpenCL runtime to commmunicate with the board. When you buy an OpenCL board you are buying a solution from the board vendor so that you can focus your kernel development and host application.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Thanks for your reply. So I guess then, if I want to try Altera OpenCL I 'will' have to buy a new board for which the vendor explicitly mentions that it supports Altera OpenCL!  

 

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

There is an investment on the board vendor's part to make their board OpenCL ready. As a result I don't think Terasic would go back to their Stratix III based boards and spend time creating the necessary infrastructure needed for that. So it's not impossible but from a priorities perspective I would think Terasic would spend their time on new boards instead. 

 

The way I look at it, don't think of it as the FPGA supporting OpenCL but rather the entire solution which includes the dev board as well as underlining software infrastructure that allows Altera's OpenCL runtime to commmunicate with the board. When you buy an OpenCL board you are buying a solution from the board vendor so that you can focus your kernel development and host application. 

--- Quote End ---  

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
290 Views

That's correct. The communication channel between the FPGA and the host, as well as some support applications needs to be provided by the board vendor so that users can use the OpenCL technology. All this stuff comes with the board when you purchase one that supports OpenCL. 

 

Also to be honest, a Stratix III device is a little on the small side to be worth using OpenCL on it. The OpenCL boards I work with are Stratix V devices with 500+ kLEs worth of logic.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
290 Views

Thanks for your reply. Ya I will have to get one OpenCL capable board then. 

 

 

--- Quote Start ---  

That's correct. The communication channel between the FPGA and the host, as well as some support applications needs to be provided by the board vendor so that users can use the OpenCL technology. All this stuff comes with the board when you purchase one that supports OpenCL. 

 

Also to be honest, a Stratix III device is a little on the small side to be worth using OpenCL on it. The OpenCL boards I work with are Stratix V devices with 500+ kLEs worth of logic. 

--- Quote End ---  

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
290 Views

Hi all, 

 

I would be pleased if you let me know that can I use DE4 board having Stratrix 4 FPGA for testing an image processing application using OpenCL technology. I am new to OpenCL and Altera FPGA and figuring out the queries without doing homework. Thanks.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
290 Views

Contact Terasic for an older version of the OpenCL BSP for the DE4. It used Quartus 12 and is considered BETA. It requires the DE4-530 though. I was thinking about porting the s5_ref BSP over to the DE4, but abandoned the project in favor of a Stratix V board that I picked up...

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