Alveo X3 network card accelerates electronic trading
For low latency operation which is vital for trading and risk management, AMD has unveiled the Aleveo X3 network card which is designed with screened FPGAs.
The Alveo X3 series is available in two hardware variants, one of which features an optional software upgrade.
The Alveo X3522 low latency network adapter can serve as a network interface card (NIC), delivering deterministic response time for reliable trade execution and serving as a natural upgrade from the X2 series NIC. The platform comes with Onload application software support to eliminate latency penalties of standard Linux networking stacks and support other host-based software such as TCPDirect.
The Alveo X3522 card can also operate in hybrid mode via a software upgrade, providing access to FPGA programmable logic. This enables computational offload to be closer to the wire to accelerate various trading strategies. Algorithm developers can use the Vitis Unified Software platform to design plug-ins in C/C++ using hundreds of Vitis library functions and building blocks or create designs from the ground up using Vitis HLS.
The Alveo X3522PV adaptable accelerator card provides a fully hardware programmable option for solution vendors to develop highly customised fintech applications, enabled by the Vivado Design suite.
The Alveo X3 series delivers networking IP, connectivity and hardware adaptability to evolve as the use case may alter or to meet future requirements.
The carrier card is based on the 16nm Virtex UltraScale+ FPGA. It is, said AMD, the only FPGA-based Fintech card in a -3 speed grade for both turnkey and custom data paths. The card also features four 10/25G ports, doubling that of the X2 series.
The Alveo X3 series was showcased at the Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC) Summit in New York (19 October) and will also be at the STACs in Chicago (01 November) and London (10 November). It will also be exhibited at the FIX Conference in Australia (29 November).
The Alveo X3 series is in production shipping now.
