LDA Panther Series (SBM09P-3)

HFT-Oriented FPGA Board

Optimize latency with jitter attenuators and ultra-low latency SyncBurst® memory: 576 MB SRAMs with a total access time of 9 ns write and 12 ns read.

Current day FPGAs handle the HFT challenge of lowest-latency tick-to-trade like no other; however, the on-chip memory available in FPGAs is not enough to cover all memory-related scenarios. So, getting the fastest memory outside the FPGA is one of the crucial points in building a successful trading system. But is it really the speed that is crucial? Does fastest equate to lowest latency? Not necessarily.

The fastest and highest bandwidth memory type most commonly available on FPGA boards today is QDR®-II SRAM. However, due to its clock specifics, accessing it from the FPGA in a typical HFT setup entails "clock domain crossing" which takes about 3 clock cycles. To put it into numbers: if the FPGA code runs at 322 Mhz then every time it accesses the QDR memory, the system pays a 9.3 ns toll. SyncBurst SRAM, on the other hand, can operate at the FPGA's local clock speed, which means clock domain crossing can be dropped along with its induced latency.

Further latency optimization is possible on this board by utilizing two jitter attenuators. This design allows the elimination of clock domain crossing between incoming and outgoing FPGA logic and locking the FPGA transmit clock to the exchange receive clock. And it can be done for two exchange feeds simultaneously.

Specifications

FPGA
Xilinx Virtex UltraScale Plus XCVU9P-3 (Fastest Speed Grade)
1 Gbit SPI x4 Boot Flash
Memory
4.6 Gbit (576 MBytes) 333 Mhz SyncBurst® SRAM (2 clock cycle latency). 16 chips soldered to the board
Clocking
2x SI5395 ultra-low jitter cleaner clock generators.
0.28ppm TCXO clock source. Stratum 3 compliant
Communication
4x QSFP28 ports supporting 16x 25 Gbps, 4x 100 Gbps, 16x 10 Gbps, 4x 40 Gbps Ethernet channels
x16 Gen3 PCI Express
1x Samtec Z-Ray expansion connector (20x serial channels) supporting up to 14.2 Gbps data rates
1x Samtec Firefly expansion connector (4x serial channels) supporting up to 28 Gbps data rates
2x MMCX PPS Input ports
Management
Onboard USB JTAG
Management controller with onboard CLI and API
Micro USB or PCIe SMBUS communication
Onboard QSFP Diagnostics software
Mechnical
PCIe standard width, ¾ length, 1- or 2-slot height card
Power
Up to 225 W total power (160 A Vccint rail)
PCIe edge connector (up to 75 W)
8 pin PCIe GPU Pinout Power connector (full power)
Cooling
1-slot height passive (limited power)
2-slot height active dual 80 mm speed-controlled fan (full power)
BSP
LDA proprietary SRAM Memory Controller
Memory, SERDES™, PCIe x16 XDMA test design

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