XPS: DSD: Collaborative Research: NeoNexus: The Next-generation Information Processing System across Digital and Neuromorphic Computing Domains

“大数据”应用的爆炸式增长对传统计算机系统的数据处理速度和可扩展性提出了严峻的挑战。由于CPU和内存之间的性能差距越来越大，传统的冯·诺依曼机器的性能受到极大的阻碍，这促使人们积极研究新的或替代的计算架构。通过模仿大脑的自然大规模并行架构，以及紧密耦合的存储和计算以及独特的模拟域操作，神经形态计算系统有望为图像识别和自然语言理解的应用提供卓越的速度。本研究的目的是建立受人类新皮层启发的下一代信息处理系统NeoNexus的基本框架和设计方法。它将神经形态计算加速器与传统计算资源集成在一起，利用基于大规模推理的数据处理和基于忆阻交叉棒阵列的计算加速技术。计算和数据交换将由创新的互连架构精心协调和支持，即分层片上网络（NoC）。将开发软硬件协同设计平台来解决各种设计挑战。该项目将帮助计算机体系结构和高性能计算社区克服传统体系结构日益增长的技术挑战，并加速传统计算技术与认知计算模型之间的融合。促进人工智能技术进步在现代计算机体系结构中的应用，激发软件和硬件两个层面的发明创造。参与这项研究的本科生和研究生将接受下一代半导体行业劳动力的培训。

The explosion of "big data" applications imposes severe challenges of data processing speed and scalability on traditional computer systems. The performance of traditional Von Neumann machines is greatly hindered by the increasing performance gap between CPU and memory, motivating the active research on new or alternative computing architectures. By imitating brain's naturally massive parallel architecture with closely coupled memory and computing as well as the unique analog domain operations, neuromorphic computing systems are anticipated to deliver superior speed for applications in image recognition and natural language understanding.The objective of this research is to establish the fundamental framework and design methodology for NeoNexus -- the next-generation information processing system inspired by human neocortex. It integrates neuromorphic computing accelerators with conventional computing resources by leveraging large scale inference-based data processing and computing acceleration technique atop memristor crossbar arrays. The computation and data exchange will be carefully coordinated and supported by the innovative interconnect architecture, i.e., a hierarchical network-on-chip (NoC). The software-hardware co-design platform will be developed to address the various design challenges. The project will help computer architecture and high-performance computing communities to overcome the ever-increasing technical challenges of traditional architectures and accelerate the fusion between conventional computing technology and cognitive computing model. It will also promote the applications of artificial intelligence technology advances in modern computer architectures and motivate the inventions at both software and hardware levels. Undergraduate and graduate students involved in this research will be trained for the next-generation semiconductor industry workforce.