Collaborative Research: Energy-Aware Memory Synchronization for Embedded Multicore Systems

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High-end embedded systems such as smart phones, game consoles, GPS-enabled automotive systems, home entertainment centers, and other ?ambient intelligence? systems are becoming increasingly important in everyday life. Making such systems energy-efficient presents new challenges with broad implications for the economy and the environment. Such high-end embedded systems are multicore architectures, which require management of resources such as memory connectivity and scheduling. This proposal investigates the energy implications of system-level concurrency issues in high-end embedded systems that are not limited by real-time constraints. In particular, it aims to develop energy-efficient techniques of synchronizing memory accesses, and tries to understand the optimal division of tasks between hardware and software. Embedded systems are an integral component of modern life, and is a continually growing market. As the computational needs of the products in this market becomes more sophisticated, there will be more challenges in meeting the tight constraints imposed by these systems. Improvements in the performance and in particular the energy efficiency of such devices would have a substantial impact in terms of improved functionality, device longevity, and resource conservation. This proposal involves collaboration between two disciplines, computer engineering and computer science, and two institutions. Broader impacts of the proposal include development of workshops focused on multicore and parallel computing with special emphasis on encouraging women and under-represented minorities to participate. In addition, the findings of this project will be integrated into existing courses, specifically aiming to introduce cross-cutting issues between the computer science and engineering courses.