About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

NovaSparks Cites Nanosecond Performance of FPGA Data Appliance

Subscribe to our newsletter

NovaSparks has released performance data for its FPGA-based data feed appliance based on the highly volatile market conditions in August, noting average latencies of 400 nanoseconds, and extreme cases of 900 nanoseconds.

On test was NovaSparks’ Gen2 appliance, which is based entirely on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) technology (i.e. unlike some competing products, no traditional CPU is used).

Gen2 is a 2U rackable appliance based on FPGAs from Altera, equipped with 21 ports for inputs and outputs, which can be configured for either 10 gigabit Ethernet or PCI-Express (up to 12 ports).  The appliance draws 180 watts of power.

10 gigabit data feeds from Nasdaq, NYSE Arca and Bats are currently supported, and a single appliance can handle multiple markets being fanned-out to several receiving servers.

NovaSparks’ tests focused on handling the Nasdaq TotalView full order book feed, and resulted in average processing latencies within the appliance of 400 nanoseconds, 99th percentile latencies of 700 nanoseconds, with a few extreme cases (e.g. long messages at peak burst times) of 900 nanoseconds.

In a real-life configuration, end-to-end latencies (from data source to receiving server) are typically a maximum of 1.5 microseconds, using PCI-Express as the interface. 10gE latencies are a bit slower, depending on the type of network interface card.

NovaSparks CEO Yves Charles says the company has both customers and proof-of-concept prospects using Gen2.  Customers and prospects are generally using the appliance for:

– Provision of managed services (such as Burstream)
– High Frequency Trading operations
– Market making activities
– Enterprise data delivery with a general low-latency requirement

Next up for Novasparks is to add further data feeds, with a focus on the options and futures markets.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: The future of market data – Harnessing cloud and AI for market data distribution and consumption

Market data is the lifeblood of trading, but as data volumes grow and real-time demands increase, traditional approaches to distribution and consumption are being pushed to their limits. Cloud technology and AI-driven solutions are rapidly transforming how financial institutions manage, process, and extract value from market data, offering greater scalability, efficiency, and intelligence. This webinar,...

BLOG

Beyond the Monolith: Crafting the Agile Trading Stack for the Modern Era

For decades, the central question for any firm designing its trading systems architecture has been a seemingly binary choice: buy an off-the-shelf platform or build a proprietary one in-house? The ‘buy’ camp argued for speed to market and vendor-managed upkeep, while the ‘build’ camp championed bespoke functionality and control over intellectual property. Today, this long-standing...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit New York

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

Regulatory Data Handbook 2020/2021 – Eighth Edition

This eighth edition of A-Team Group’s Regulatory Data Handbook is a ‘must-have’ for capital markets participants during this period of unprecedented change. Available free of charge, it profiles every regulation that impacts capital markets data management practices giving you: A detailed overview of each regulation with key dates, data and data management implications, links to...