GreenFPGA: Evaluating FPGAs as Environmentally Sustainable Computing Solutions

Chetan Choppali Sudarshan, Aman Arora, Vidya A. Chhabria

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Growing global concerns about climate change highlight the need for environmentally sustainable computing. The ecological impact of computing, including operational and embodied, is crucial. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) stand out as promising sustainable computing platforms due to their reconfigurability across various applications. This paper introduces GreenFPGA, a tool estimating the total carbon footprint (CFP) of FPGAs over their lifespan, considering design, manufacturing, reconfigurability, operation, disposal, and recycling. Using GreenFPGA, the paper evaluates scenarios where the ecological benefits of FPGA reconfigurability outweigh operational and embodied carbon costs, positioning FPGAs as an environmentally sustainable choice for hardware acceleration compared to Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Experimental results show that FPGAs have lower CFP than ASICs for multiple low-volume applications or short application lifespans.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 61st ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, DAC 2024
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9798400706011
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 7 2024
Event61st ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, DAC 2024 - San Francisco, United States
Duration: Jun 23 2024Jun 27 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings - Design Automation Conference
ISSN (Print)0738-100X

Conference

Conference61st ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, DAC 2024
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco
Period6/23/246/27/24

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Modeling and Simulation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'GreenFPGA: Evaluating FPGAs as Environmentally Sustainable Computing Solutions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this