Intel® VTune™ Profiler Performance Analysis Cookbook

Cookbook

  • 2021
  • 11/09/2021
  • Public Content
Contents

Analyzing CPU and FPGA (Intel® Arria® 10 GX) Interaction

This recipe instructs you how to configure your platform to analyze an interaction of your CPU and FPGA, using Intel® Arria 10 GX FPGA as an example.

Ingredients

This section lists the hardware and software tools used for the performance analysis scenario.
  • Application
    : Matrix Multiplication OpenCL™ application. The Matrix Multiplication sample application is available for download from the Intel® FPGA SDK for OpenCL™ website
  • Tools
    : Intel® FPGA SDK for OpenCL™, Intel® VTune™ Amplifier 2019 or higher
    • Starting with the 2020 release, Intel® VTune™ Amplifier has been renamed to
      Intel® VTune™
      Profiler
      .
    • Most recipes in the
      Intel® VTune™
      Profiler
       Performance Analysis Cookbook are flexible. You can apply them to different versions of
      Intel® VTune™
      Profiler
      . In some cases, minor adjustments may be required.
    • Get the latest version of
      Intel® VTune™
      Profiler
      :
  • Operating System
    : CentOS* 7, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 7 or higher
  • CPU
    : Intel® server platform code named Skylake
  • FPGA
    : Intel® Arria® 10 GX

Configure the Intel® Arria® 10 GX FPGA and Intel® FPGA SDK for OpenCL™

  1. On your Intel Arria 10 GX FPGA, set up the DIP switches and connect the power and USB cables. See detailed instructions.
  2. Download
    Intel® FPGA SDK for OpenCL™ (includes CodeBuilder, Quartus Prime software and devices)
     from http://fpgasoftware.intel.com/opencl/.
  3. Run the
    setup_pro.sh
     file to install the SDK.
  4. Run
    source init_opencl.sh
     to set the appropriate environment variables.
  5. Run
    aocl version
     to verify the installation. The output should look similar to the following: 
    aocl 17.1.0.240 (Intel(R) FPGA SDK for OpenCL(TM), Version 17.1.0 Build 240, Copyright (C) 2017 Intel Corporation)
  6. Run
    aocl install
     to install the FPGA board.
  7. Run
    aocl diagnose
     to verify the hardware installation. The output should look similar to the following: 
    Device Name:
acl0

Package Pat:
/home/tce/intelFPGA_pro/17.1/hld/board/a10_ref

Vendor: Intel(R) Corporation

Phys Dev Name  Status   Information

acla10_ref0   Passed   Arria 10 Reference Platform (acla10_ref0)
                   	PCIe dev_id = 2494, bus:slot.func = 44:00.00, Gen3 x4
                   	FPGA temperature = 44.3555 degrees C.

DIAGNOSTIC_PASSED

Build the Sample Application and Flash to the FPGA

  1. Run
    make
     with the default
    makefile
     to build the host executable. The executable output filename is
    host
    .
  2. Build the binary for the FPGA using the following command: 
    aoc -v -board=a10gx device/matrix_mult.cl -o bin/ matrix_mult.aocx
  3. Set up the USB driver to flash.
    1. Run the following command: 
      sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/51-usbblaster.rules
    2. Add the following lines: 
      # usb blaster
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTRS{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6001", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTRS{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6002", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTRS{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6003", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTRS{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6010", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", ATTRS{idVendor}=="09fb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6810", MODE="0666", NAME="bus/usb/$env{BUSNUM}/$env{DEVNUM}", RUN+="/bin/chmod 0666 %c"
  4. Lower the JTAG clock speed to 6 MHz using the following command: 
    jtagconfig --setparam 1 JtagClock 6M
  5. Flash the binary to the FPGA using the following command: 
    aocl flash acl0 ./bin/matrix_mult.aocx
  6. Reboot the host system with the FPGA.

Run CPU/FPGA Interaction Analysis

  1. Launch the VTune Amplifier. For example: 
    /opt/intel/vtune_amplifier_2019/bin64/amplxe-gui
  2. Create a project for your analysis, for example:
    hello_world_opencl
    .
  3. Click
    Configure Analysis
     to start a new analysis.
  4. Set up the
    CPU/FPGA Interaction
     analysis.
    Configure Analysis window showing matrix multiply file path
    1. In the
      WHERE
       pane, select
      Local Host
      .
    2. In the
      WHAT
       pane, select
      Launch Application
       and browse to the
      hello world
       application. Typically the application can be found under
      <sample app>
      /bin/host
      .
    3. In the
      HOW
       pane, select
      CPU/FPGA Interaction
       from the available analysis types.
  5. Click
    Start
     to begin the analysis.

Interpret Results

After data collection completes, the results are finalized and shown in the
CPU/FPGA Interaction
 viewpoint. Start with the
Summary
 tab to view the FPGA top compute tasks and well as the top tasks and hotspots for the CPU.
Summary window showing CPU/FPGA Interaction viewpoint with Top Hotspots and FPGA Top Compute lists
Switch to the
Bottom-up
 tab to review the work size of a compute task and data transfer throughput. Use the timeline pane to review the FPGA utilization for compute and transfer.
Bottom-up tab of CPU/FPGA Interaction viewpoint showing timeline of FPGA utilization
Use the
Platform
 tab to check the computing queue for the FPGA and host application. You can also find the start time and duration of each transfer and synchronization.
Platform tab of CPU/FPGA Interaction viewpoint showing computing queue, tread, and FPGA utilization timelines

Product and Performance Information

1

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.