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+# FPGA Runtime for OpenCL documentation
+
+## OpenCL background
+
+[Khronos® OpenCL™] is a standard for writing programs that run across
+heterogeneous platforms consisting of FPGA, CPU, GPU, DSP, etc. The [Intel® FPGA
+Runtime for OpenCL™ Software Technology] implements the [OpenCL 1.2] standard
+including selected vendor extensions.
+
+## What is the FPGA runtime?
+
+The following components work together to program an [Intel® FPGA]:
+
+1. host program and host compiler
+2. OpenCL kernel(s) and offline compiler
+3. [Custom Platform]
+
+The runtime is responsible for executing the host program (1) and queueing the
+kernel to be executed on the FPGA device. It takes in the hardware programming
+image from the compiler (2), builds the contained programs, allocates
+host/shared/device memory, programs devices, enqueues and executes the kernels,
+and collects kernel execution status signaled from the memory-mapped device
+([MMD](../include/MMD/aocl_mmd.h)). Each step is described in the following.
+
+## Why is the FPGA runtime needed?
+
+FPGA hardware design deals with I/O constraints, protocols, monitoring, DDR
+calibration, and memory dependencies. The FPGA runtime provides a layer of
+abstraction to ease the development flow.
+
+### Memory
+
+Each kernel execution may require accessing device memory. The device memory
+needs to be reserved/allocated before kernel execution. The runtime keeps track
+of the memory allocation. There are two main types of memory allocations:
+[buffers](buffers.md) and unified shared memory (USM).
+
+### Kernels
+
+Kernels are data-parallel functions that extend C99 for parallelism and memory
+hierarchy.
+
+### Queues
+
+Queues manage buffer mapping, memory migration, device programming, and kernel
+execution. A queue receives asynchronous command completion notifications from
+the device. A queue also manages dependencies between commands using events and
+barriers.
+
+### Profiling
+
+The runtime keeps track of the status of a kernel execution to record the
+wall time of each stage. This provides the user with insights into the
+performance of their program.
+
+## User flow
+
+For more information on how users interact with each of the above components,
+see the [Intel® FPGA SDK for OpenCL™ Pro Edition: Programming Guide].
+
+## How to contribute
+
+To contribute to the runtime, see [CONTRIBUTING.md](../CONTRIBUTING.md).
+To build, test, and use the runtime, see [README.md](../README.md).
+
+[Khronos® OpenCL™]: https://www.khronos.org/opencl/
+[OpenCL 1.2]: https://www.khronos.org/registry/OpenCL/sdk/1.2/docs/man/xhtml/
+[Intel® FPGA]: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/programmable.html
+[Intel® FPGA Runtime for OpenCL™ Software Technology]: https://github.com/intel/fpga-runtime-for-opencl
+[Intel® FPGA SDK for OpenCL™ Pro Edition: Programming Guide]: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683846/
+[Custom Platform]: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683085/