[1024core]

I'm a total FPGA n00b, so here's a dumb question: what can you do with this FPGA that you can't with a GPU?

OK, here's a concrete question: I have a vector of 64 floats. I want to multiply it with a matrix of size 64xN, where N is on the order of 1 billion. How fast can I do this multiplication, and find the top K elements of the resulting N-dimensional array?

[cheez]

FGPA = Field Programmable Gate Array.

Basically, you can create a custom "CPU" for your particular workflow. Imagine the GPU didn't exist and you couldn't multiply vectors of floats in parallel on your CPU. You could use a FPGA to write something to multiply a vector of floats in parallel without developing a GPU. It would probably not be as fast as a GPU or the equivalent CPU, but it would be faster than doing it serially.

Another way to put it: you can create a GPU with a FPGA, but not vice versa.

[1024core]

Thanks. But what's the capacity of this particular FPGA? How much can it "do" ? Surely it can't emulate a dozen Xeons; so what's the upper bound on what can be done on this FPGA?

[deelowe]

I can't answer the GPU comparison question, but I can answer the question of what you "can" do on a FPGA. Here are some example cores for FPGAs: http://opencores.org/projects

Hopefully, by browsing that list, you can see how FPGAs aren't really directly comparable to something like a GPU.