Memory-based computing stores pre-computed
function results in memory to be read at runtime. FPGAs group
together multiple block memories (BRAMs) to form this memory,
all accessed as a single monolithic device. We introduce a novel
ring-based architecture to leverage parallel accesses to these
constituent BRAMs, benefiting low latency applications that rely
on: highly-complex functions; numerical precision via iterative
computation; or many parallel data-paths accessing a shared
memory resource. The implemented function’s performance is
independent of its complexity, enabling significant latency reduc-
tions for compute-bound operations. We assess common functions
(sqrt, power, trigonometric, hyperbolic functions) on the Xilinx
Alveo U280 FPGA. Our function-agnostic memory-compute core
can serve 1024 parallel function calls at 300MHz and reduce
latency 4.4-29x versus traditional FPGA implementations.