Collaborative Research: Applying Hardware-Inspired Methods for Multi-Core Software Design

0725350合作研究：应用硬件启发方法进行多核软件设计Brian C. Demsky加州大学欧文分校0725357合作研究：在过去，微处理器性能的改进主要是通过时钟频率的增加和微架构的增强来表达的，而这对典型的开发人员来说是不可见的。最近，由于功耗和微架构的可扩展性问题，微处理器设计已经偏离了这条道路，并开始关注通过多核抽象来暴露改进的半导体处理能力，多核抽象将多个独立处理器集成到单个芯片中。这种显式并行多核处理器的部署对软件系统的未来有着深远的影响。虽然并行软件在桌面系统中基本上是不必要的，但如果我们期望软件功能和程序员生产力的持续增长，就像过去35年社会所享受的那样，它将变得必不可少。本研究探讨了一种新的设计方法，用于开发并行软件系统，这是利用多核处理器所必需的。这种方法利用了硬件芯片设计方法中的概念，可扩展到数百万个通信并行实体。这种新的设计过程使软件开发人员能够创建灵活的系统设计，轻松适应计算实现方式的改进。它通过将软件系统的功能设计与如何组织计算的规范分离来做到这一点。为了验证这种新的设计方法，该研究项目调查了可用于开发和细化这些功能和组织规范的合成和分析工具的构造。这些规范依次用于创建针对特定多核微处理器进行优化的可执行文件。

0725350Collaborative Research: Applying Hardware-Inspired Methods for Multi- Core Software Design Brian C. Demsky University of California, Irvine0725357Collaborative Research: Applying Hardware-Inspired Methods for Multi- Core Software Design Michael B. Taylor University of California, San DiegoIn the past, improvements in microprocessor capabilities were expressed largely through a combination of clock frequency increases and microarchitectural enhancements that were invisible to the typical developer. More recently, due to power and microarchitectural scalability issues, microprocessor designs have diverged from this path and have begun to focus on exposing improved semiconductor process capabilities through the multi-core abstraction, which integrates multiple independent processors into a single chip. The deployment of such explicitly-parallel multi-core processors has deep implications on the future of software systems. While parallel software has been largely unnecessary in desktop systems, it will become essential if we are to expect continued increases in software functionality and programmer productivity like those that society has enjoyed over the last 35 years.This research investigates a new design methodology for developing the parallel software systems that are necessary to take advantage of multi-core processors. This methodology leverages concepts from hardware chip-design methodologies, which scale to millions of communicating parallel entities. This new design process enables the software developer to create flexible system designs that easily accommodate refinement of how the computation is realized. It does this by separating the functional design of the software system from the specification of how to organize the computation. To validate this new design methodology, the research project investigates the construction of synthesis and profiling tools that can be used to develop and refine these functional and organizational specifications. These specifications are in turn used to create an executable that is optimized for the specific multi-core microprocessor.