FPGA-Based Sparse Matrix Multiplication Accelerators: From State-of-the-Art to Future Opportunities

Sparse matrix multiplication (SpMM) plays a critical role in high-performance computing applications, such as deep learning, image processing, and physical simulation. Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), with their configurable hardware resources, can be tailored to accelerate SpMMs. There has been considerable research on deploying sparse matrix multipliers across various FPGA platforms. However, the FPGA-based design of sparse matrix multipliers still presents numerous challenges. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize and organize the current work to provide a reference for further research. This article first introduces the computational method of SpMM and categorizes the different challenges of FPGA deployment. Following this, we introduce and analyze a variety of state-of-the-art FPGA-based accelerators tailored for SpMMs. In addition, a comparative analysis of these accelerators is performed, examining metrics including compression rate, throughput, and resource utilization. Finally, we propose potential research directions and challenges for further study of FPGA-based SpMM accelerators.