FPGAs are Field programmable Gate Arrays. They have a far higher density of programmable gates than more conventional computing systems, but a lower clock speed. They offer enormous potential for fine-grain parallel computing, where the results of individual computations are almost immediately available to other computing elements. This is quite unlike the coarse-grain parallel computing used in modern supercomputers, where there are significant delays in transferring data between different computing elements.

Quad-core PC chips are now widely available. A new generation of parallel chips is under development where there may be as many as 64 parallel cores in a closely coupled system. These devices are far less parallel than FPGAs but are faster and may offer similar scope for fine-grain parallelism.

Algorithms for fine-grain parallel computing were developed by a member of SimCon in 1983 for the Applied Dynamics International AD10 simulation computer. This machine was by far the fastest real-time simulation system available in the mid 1980s, and was used in the design of Space Shuttle, comunications satellites, nuclear powerplant, helicopters and a range of military hardware. The algorithms were implemented as a stand-alone optimiser and instruction scheduler. They are applicable to Fortran or C programming for FPGAs and multicore systems. Research is in progress in collaboration with Liverpool Hope University and The University of Cape Town to apply the algorithms to these devices.

"Hydra", the first implementation of the parallel algorithmes for an FPGA is a pipeline of processes made up of:

• WinFPT: WinFPT replaces separate variable lives with different variables (For a description of variables lives, please see the description of this issue in the research on physical units and dimensions. Essentially, variables which are assigned more than once are replaced by separate variables, each with only a single assignment). WinFPT expands sub-programs in-line and unrolls DO loops. It cuts long expressons into "triples" - expressions of the form a = b + c, a = b * c or a = sin(b);

• WinFPT API: Code written in the WinFPT API outputs the triples in a format appropriate for the parallel optimiser;

• Hydra Optimiser: The Hydra optimiser, derived from the original system for the AD10, schedules the instructions in an optimised parallel sequence;

• Hydra Image Builder: The image builder constructs the load image for the FPGA.

The FPGA program consists of an interpreter which reads the load image and executes groups of operations in parallel. The FPGA program is data driven. It is a single generic code which will execute any program. Compilation of a Fortran code through the pipeline does not require any further coding within the FPGA.

The Hydra pipeline is described in detail in the paper "APPRASE: Automatic parallelisation of Fortran to run on an FPGA" presented at the SCSC 2008 conference in Edinburgh.

Hydra forms part of the APPRASE project at Liverpool Hope University, partly supported by the HEIF UK funding.

FPGAs are most efficiently programmed in fixed point arithmetic. Real numbers are represented by scaled fractions. Each real value, x, is assigned a maximum absolute value, scale(x), and is represented internally by an integer which is calculated as X = 2**(n-1) * x / scale(x) where n is the number of bits used in the scaled fraction. Usually, n would be 32 bits, but in an FPGA this is not necessarily the case.

The AD10 was also a fixed-point machine. A system was developed to maintain the coefficients and data structures required to support the scaled-fraction arithmetic. For example, where

      a = b + c

      A = ( B + C * ( scale(c) / scale(b) ) ) * ( scale(b) / scale(a) )