Re: FPGA based database searching

On 23 Jun, 14:00, "Norman Bollmann" <wirdnichtgele...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've been searching the internet for days now and still I'm not sure
about
> what I am trying to do. Okay now, I've got a software implementation in
> ANSI-C for a complex database searching. The database is a proprietary
> format where I am saving data, which has to be given as a result,
depending
> on the input data. Problem is, the software implementation is far to
slow.
>
> Now I am looking for alternative ways for a faster implementation and
came
> across the idea to implement the whole database searching as electronic
> circuit in an FPGA. The database is of course far too big to save it
inside
> an FPGA, e.g. the BlockRAMs of a Spartan3. Therefore external memory has
to
> be used, slowing down the throughput. Target is a database searching of
> 262144 elements with 16 bit each in maximum 220 ms.
>
> Does anybody have experience with FPGA based database handling or
similar
> tasks? Your urgent response will be highly appreciated!

How slow is the software solution? Are you sure it can't be done on a
faster PC? Have you tried searching in parallel? i.e. 64-bits at a
time. That would mean you need to search 64k entries in 220ms. That's
3us per entry. You can execute quite a few instructions on a PC in
that amount of time. A dataset of that size will fit in to your cache
too.

Jon