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System 2020:Research Grand Challenges in Computer Architecture

Mary Jane IrwinPenn State University

John ShenIntel

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MainframesMainframes

Mini’sMini’s

WorkstationsWorkstations

PC’sPC’s

??????Eniac

What is the next big thing ?

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What are the mega trends ?

1. Wired Wireless Telecommunication Internet/Computing

2. Patch-work Wireless Blanket Wireless3. Personal Computer Mobile Computer

Persistent/Transparent Computer4. Embedded vs. High-end

Convergence?5. Sever vs. Client Convergence?

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And anticipated usage models ?

Human-centric: Intelligent spaces

For work, education, leisure, entertainmentActive displays, sensory devices, immersive experience

Personal agentsFeature rich gadgets; useful real-time informationHighly mobile, roam seamlessly from space to space

Infrastructure-centric: Traditional server farms and data centers

Very large scale information fusion, storage, analysisCommunication and synchronization between spaces

Fabric for supporting human-centric usesProactively pushing information to roaming agentsSupport enormous number of distributed and roaming

“servers”

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The computing paradigm ala Google

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The computing paradigm ala Nokia

3 ©2005 Nokia

Digital Convergence

Informationtechnology

Communication

Media andentertainment

Consumerelectronics

4 ©2005 Nokia

Digital convergence– “Mobile phone”view

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Connectedcamera

Mobilemusic

Mobile TV,Connected

enhancements

Connected gaming on

open platform

My Connected

Life

Arti sts

Optio n s Ba ck

Ala ni s Mo ri sse …Be etho ve nBrya n Ad amsE ri c Cla ptonL isa Lo e bNo rah J on es

Supposed former infat…1. Front Row 2. Baba 3. Thank U 4. Are You still mad

Under r ug swept1. 21 Things2. Narcissus 3. Hands Clean 4. Flinch 5. SoUnsexy

Arti sts

Optio n s Ba ck

Ala ni s Mo ri sse …Be etho ve nBrya n Ad amsE ri c Cla ptonL isa Lo e bNo rah J on es

Supposed former infat…1. Front Row 2. Baba 3. Thank U 4. Are You still mad

Under r ug swept1. 21 Things2. Narcissus 3. Hands Clean 4. Flinch 5. SoUnsexy

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What are the components of a GC?

A “grand” scale problem that will require at least a decade of concentrated research to make substantive progress1. that has a measurable outcomes/milestones,2. that will excite and engage the computer

architecture research community,3. and that is deserving of considerable

investment by funders because it will materially advance the capabilities and conduct of society.

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1W Featherweight Supercomputer

1. For the goal of 1TOP/W will need 250 to 1000X improvement in performance/W 1TOP/W = .001 nJ/op vs today’s ~30nJ/op

2. Architects are already engaged 3. Funding and impacts

societal impacts are clear and compelling: pervasive intelligent sensors, embedded supercomputing appliances, . . .

funding investments?

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Featherweight Challenges

power/energy reductions dynamic and leakage, HW/SW mode controls, . . .

technology issues (65nm45nm32nm) ↑ process variation, ↑ transient/aging faults,

advanced packaging (SoC MCP 3D), . . . design issues

cost, design time & tools, verification & test, . . . performance improvements

CMPs & SMT, heterogeneous cores, programmable accelerators, eDRAMs, NoCs, . . .

programmability . . .

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Popular Parallel Programming (P3)

1. Software and architecture support that makes parallel programming easy If 2X per 2 year perf. gains continue, will soon

have 1000-way chip-level parallelism

2. Architects are becoming engaged but can’t do the job alone need compiler, system & application developers

3. Funding and impacts a necessary enabling technology for future chips

(e.g., the 1W Featherweight Supercomputer) funding investments?

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P3 Challenges new programming languages/models

that are correct, efficient, scalable, portable, . . . that require minimal exposure of the

programmer to low-level details and that support multi-modal parallelism

data-parallel, embarrassingly parallel, irregularly parallel

microarchitecture support lightweight thread/process communication and

synchronization, monitoring for reliability and thermal hot spots, dynamic adaptation, . . .

development support benchmarks, prototyping platforms, tools for

debugging, performance tuning, . . .

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Dependable Systems

1. Self-healing, trustworthy hardware and software systems everywhere Low-cost computing you can trust your life on 2x improvement in mean work-to-failure per

generation Cost of ownership, vendor costs for liability/repair

2. Architects already engaged but can’t do the job alone A system stack problem – devices, circuits,

languages, OS, applications, dependability analysts

3. Funding and impacts The s/w problem alone is ~ 0.6% GDP of the US funding investments?

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Dependable Systems Challenges

Host of hardware reliability problems Transient, aging, infant mortality, variations,…

Software reliability, security getting worseSteep constraints

Area, power, perf (even for high-end systems)

Architects can provide low cost solutions Workload-aware, selective, fast, adaptive

Bring dependability to h/w-s/w interface Adapt to trade off reliability, security, perf, power Integrated cross-layer solution from devices to

app

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New Computing Models

1. Beyond the stored program architecture data flow? neural network?

2. “Expanding the box” for architects neuroscientists, biologists, chemists, . . .

3. Funding and impacts neuro-prosthetics, telepathy, . . . funding investments?

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“Brain” Challenges

High risk – but high payoff Neuroscientists are a long way from unraveling

the mysteries of the neocortex Take partial steps – augment certain brain

functions (hearing for the deaf, vision for the blind, mobility for the quadrapeligic),

Take advantage of emerging technologies Heterogeneous systems: silicon + nanosensors

and actuators, emerging nanotechnologies (CNT, QCAs, quantum, . . .)

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Watch for the final report

http://www.cra.org/Activities/grand.challenges/architecture/home.html

And check out the reports from the previous Grand Challenges conferences

http://www.cra.org/grand.challenges/