Impulse Announces C-to-HDL FPGA Compiler

Impulse Accelerated Technologies has announced the latest version of its C-to-HDL compiler, providing field-programmable gate array (FPGA) coding support for Arista Switch users.

FPGAs, which are being increasingly used in latency-sensitive operations such as data management and high-frequency trading (HFT), usually require specialist knowledge of the hardware development language (HDL) to be programmed. Impulse's release allows for the the Impulse C programming environment to be compiled to FPGAs, with algorithms expressed as streaming processes.

The release is specifically targeted at the 7124FX AppSwitch FPGA from Arista Networks. FPGAs have seen a hesitant, but growing adoption within the financial services industry in recent years, fuelled by their ability to perform mission-critical tasks at lightening speeds. Other software and hardware houses, such as Xilinx, are also developing C-to-HDL compilers to facilitate extended use in typically software engineering-heavy sectors, as opposed to those that place a greater emphasis on hardware.