Collaborative Research: Cross-Layer Exploration of Non-Volatile Solid-State Memories to Achieve Effective I/O Stack for High-Performance Computing Systems

本研究的目的是开发从器件、电路、架构和系统角度跨I/O层次利用固态存储器技术的技术，以利用它们在高性能计算系统中提高I/O堆栈性能的真正潜力。I/O友好型内存系统架构将被开发，以实现混合处理器-内存3D集成，大大减少片外I/O流量。将开发自适应缓存管理和热点预测方法，以解决固态驱动器的低随机写入性能，并开发数据处理技术，以实现在固态驱动器性能特征之间的运行时可配置权衡。将开发一个全面的全系统仿真基础设施来评估和演示在各种高性能计算工作负载下的研究。该研究将促进高性能计算系统最有效地利用现有的/新兴的内存和处理技术来解决重大的I/O堆栈设计挑战。它可以极大地促进高性能计算系统保持其历史规模，从而使许多现实生活中的应用程序受益，例如生物学、化学、地球科学、医疗保健等。该项目还将通过参与代表性不足的群体、传播教育和培训的研究基础设施以及向高中生伸出援手，为社会做出贡献。

The objective of this research is to develop techniques that utilize solid-state memory technologies from device, circuit, architecture, and system perspectives across I/O hierarchy in order to exploit their true potential for improving I/O stack performance in high-performance computing systems. I/O friendly memory system architectures will be developed to enable hybrid processor-memory 3D integrations with largely reduced off-chip I/O traffic. Adaptive cache management and hotspot prediction methods will be developed to address the low random write performance of solid-state drives, and data processing techniques will be developed to enable run-time configurable trade-offs among solid-state drive performance characteristics. A comprehensive full-system simulation infrastructure will be developed to evaluate and demonstrate the research under diverse high-performance computing workloads.The research will facilitate the high-performance computing systems to most effectively utilize existing/emerging memory and processing technologies to tackle the grand I/O stack design challenge. It can greatly contribute to enabling high-performance computing systems to stay on track of their historic scaling, and hence benefit numerous real-life applications such as biology, chemistry, earth science, health care, etc. This project will also contribute to the society through engaging under-represented groups, research infrastructure dissemination for education and training, and outreach to high school students.