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Industry Solution
Data Center
FPGA acceleration for the modern data center powering DPUs and AI NICs, storage offload, and platform security across AI and cloud infrastructure.
The Data Center is Being Rebuilt Around AI
Digital AI depends on efficient data movement and scalable compute to train models and deliver fast, reliable inference. AI training and inference are reshaping infrastructure faster than fixed silicon can follow. Traffic is climbing, accelerators sit idle waiting on data and memory, and power and cooling have become the binding constraints. Interconnects are mid-transition — PCIe Gen5, CXL, 400/800G Ethernet — and security expectations are rising toward post-quantum. Operators need infrastructure that adapts as fast as the workloads do.
The Challenges, and Why FPGA
The Challenge
Model Churn vs. Fixed Silicon
Accelerators stall waiting on networking and memory.
Why FPGA
Offload the Data Path
SmartNIC/DPU pipelines move and steer data at wire speed, keeping accelerators fed.
The Challenge
Protocol Churn
PCIe, CXL, and Ethernet shift faster than ASIC cycles.
Why FPGA
Consolidate Onto One Adaptable Device
Absorb the CPU tax and collapse fixed-function chips, cutting watts and board cost.
The Challenge
Power & TCO
Every watt spent moving data is a watt not computing.
Why FPGA
Reprogram Instead of Respin
Adapt to new interconnects in the field, no new silicon.
The Challenge
Platform Security
Root-of-trust and post-quantum are now table stakes.
Why FPGA
Root of Trust in Hardware
Secure Device Manager built in, with post-quantum cryptography support on select Agilex® devices.
Why Altera
Pure-Play FPGA Focus
Programmable logic is Altera's whole business, not a sideline to a CPU or GPU roadmap.
One Design Flow, Edge to Data Center
Quartus Prime and the FPGA AI Suite span the full portfolio.
Proven in Production
Agilex 7 runs in leading CSP data centers today, alongside GPUs.
Ecosystem & Longevity
ASAP partner network and long product lifecycles for infrastructure that ships for years.
Data Center Applications
AI Inference
Moves and pre-processes data for the compute- and memory-bound phases of inference so GPUs in disaggregated clusters stay fed.
DPU & AI NIC
Offloads RDMA, OVS, and security protocols for ultra-low, deterministic latency in DPUs and AI NICs.
Platform Management
Power sequencing, telemetry, and hardware root-of-trust (BMC/SCM/PRoT) for server platform management.
Storage
Moves NVMe-oF protocol, encryption, and compression into a deterministic, line-rate hardware pipeline.
Altera Agilex 7 FPGAs are used in our Vollo platform because they enable a wide variety of custom models — from financial trading to wireless telecoms to cybersecurity.
FPGA AI Suite enables ease of use and push-button AI inference IP generation for Altera FPGA devices. The team converted a trained model to FPGA inference IP using OpenVINO and FPGA AI Suite.
Get Started
Common Questions
Data-path offload processes workload traffic such as network packets or storage data. Platform management supervises hardware through functions such as power sequencing, telemetry and firmware protection; these require different architectures and performance criteria.
Choose a memory-class device when sustained memory bandwidth or local data capacity dominates the workload. Choose an I/O-focused configuration when host or network transport is the main constraint, after checking the exact device's tile and memory support.
Calculate demand across network payload, PCIe transfers and memory reads/writes separately. Account for protocol overhead and concurrent traffic, then size the design to its narrowest sustained path rather than the highest advertised interface rate.
Open FPGA Stack provides a reference infrastructure for integrating accelerator logic with supported PCIe-attached platforms. It can reduce repeated infrastructure work, but the selected board, driver, release and application interfaces still need compatibility and deployment validation.
Measure queueing, host software, PCIe transfer, memory contention and network congestion alongside hardware execution. A fixed pipeline delay does not eliminate waiting elsewhere in the system, especially under bursty or saturated workloads.