A Design Framework for Improving Reliability, Debug and Security of Multi-Core Systems

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"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5)."Project ID: 0903191PI names: Sandip Kundu and Israel KorenTitle: A Design Framework for Improving Reliability, Debug and Security of Multi-Core SystemsInst: University of Massachusetts, AmherstABSTRACT:Today?s computer chips feature multiple cores in the same substrate where all cores may perform concurrent tasks, improving overall performance. However, multi-core systems exacerbate some problems such as power dissipation, system and software debugging, security and long term system reliability. Power consumption in computer systems is a major concern. For example, Google server plants, reportedly consume about 103 megawatts of electricity ? enough to power a city of the size of Tacoma, Washington.Debugging multi-core hardware/software in a multitasking, multithreading, multi-core environment is very complex as an individual core may crash and communication may deadlock. Computer reliability and security are increasing concerns, as society becomes ever more dependent on the availability of computer systems and on the security of the data that they process and store. Continuous monitoring of the health of the computer system to allow fast recovery from faults, and protecting critical and private data from tampering attempts are thus necessary.The project envisions designing a simple dedicated supervisory core integrated into chip multi-processors that is always alive. This core supports execution of commands for rebooting individual cores and allows query of internal states of any core on the same substrate. Such a core adds little to system cost but adds a number of run time capabilities that allow us to solve the above problems and also allow improved remote system management, which has emerged as a major challenge in computer data centers.The broader impact of this project is two fold. At a technical level, it provides solutions to mitigate societal problems such as energy consumption, advancing computer security and improving computer up-time. At a curriculum level, it trains researchers in a discipline that is extremely important for US industrial competitiveness. This project is actively supported by major US industries through technical collaboration.