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: Enhancing trader efficiency with interoperability – Innovative solutions for automated and streamlined trader desktop and workflows

Traders today are expected to navigate increasingly complex markets using workflows that often lag behind the pace of change. Disconnected systems, manual processes, and fragmented user experiences create hidden inefficiencies that directly impact performance and risk management. Firms that can streamline and modernise the trader desktop are gaining a tangible edge – both in speed...

BLOG

Implementing Technology Business Management with Pace and Precision

By Simon Mendoza, Chief Technology Officer, Calero. Implementing a Technology Business Management (TBM) platform can feel like a major logistical challenge. Every organisation starts from a different place – different data maturity, internal priorities and levels of stakeholder engagement. But that doesn’t mean every implementation needs to be a blank slate. The fastest and most...

EVENT

RegTech Summit New York

Now in its 9th year, the RegTech Summit in New York will bring together the RegTech ecosystem to explore how the North American capital markets financial industry can leverage technology to drive innovation, cut costs and support regulatory change.

GUIDE

Pricing and Valuations

This special report accompanies a webinar we held a webinar on the popular topic of Pricing and Valuations, discussing issues such as transparency of pricing and how to ensure data quality. You can register here to get immediate access to the Special Report.