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 Role of Data Fabric and Data Mesh in Modern Trading Infrastructures

The demands on trading infrastructure are intensifying. Increasing data volumes, the necessity for real-time processing, and stringent regulatory requirements are exposing the limitations of legacy data architectures. In response, firms are re-evaluating their data strategies to improve agility, scalability, and governance. Two architectural models central to this conversation are Data Fabric and Data Mesh. This...

BLOG

A Look Ahead to This Year’s AI in Capital Markets Summit London

On 22 May, the AI in Capital Markets Summit returns to London for its second year, bringing together data, technology, and innovation leaders from across the financial services sector for a full day of discussion around AI strategy, deployment, and governance. Held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City, this A-Team Group event will examine...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit London

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

High Performance Technologies for Trading

The highly specialised realm of high frequency trading without doubt is a great driver for a range of high performance technologies that are becoming essential tools for Wall Street. More so than the now somewhat pedestrian algorithmic trading and analytics/pricing applications that are usually cited as the reason that HPC is hitting the financial markets,...