CI-P: Collaborative Project: Massively-Parallel Analog Co-Processors for Simulating Complex Systems

近年来，数字超级计算机的速度呈指数级增长，但这些通用计算机在计算速度方面仍有许多不足之处，以用于对各种基于物理的系统进行严格的数学模拟。此外，由于晶体管比例和切换速度的根本限制，数字计算机的性能正开始饱和。然而，晶体管的模拟性能继续提高，超过400 GHz的频率范围现在可用于毫米波无线通信、成像和雷达等应用。因此，人们对高速模拟协处理器非常感兴趣，它可以利用现代纳米级集成电路技术快速执行某些特定的模拟。该项目的总体目标是发现理论，设计电路，并验证具有多GHz带宽的可扩展模拟计算单元的运行情况，这些单元可以无缝集成到现代数字计算体系结构中，从而实现新的混合(模拟/数字)计算范例。这项“规划”研究旨在获得基础知识，得出要求和规范，并确定CRI计划最终完整项目的团队需求，使CISE社区能够更容易地探索这种“超越摩尔”计算范例。特别是，它将为为各种科学计算应用开发和使用射频(RF)模拟加速器提供共享资源。此CI-P规划活动将探索可有效映射到大规模并行集成模拟加速器的几个数学模型。数学模型可以包括困难的科学计算问题(例如，浅水版本的Navier-Stokes方程)和工程中的重要问题(例如，麦克斯韦电磁方程)的简化版本。计划阶段将包括一个为期一天的“创意工作坊”，以促进来自多所大学、在模拟和混合计算方面有经验或对这一主题有浓厚兴趣的CISE研究人员之间的非正式讨论。该项目包括重要的教育和外联活动，包括在克利夫兰-阿克伦地区当地高中的外联活动，在阿克伦大学的Lead-Pi实验室举办的暑期讲习班，以及在凯斯西储大学的导师/研究经验。

Digital supercomputers have become exponentially faster in recent years, but these general-purpose machines still leave much to be desired in terms of computational speed for mathematically rigorous simulations of various physics-based systems. Moreover, digital computer performance is beginning to saturate due to fundamental limitations in transistor scaling and switching speed. However, the analog performance of transistors continues to improve, and frequency ranges exceeding 400 GHz are now available for applications such as millimeter wave wireless communications, imaging, and radar. Hence there is a lot of interest in high-speed analog co-processors that can rapidly perform certain specialized simulations by taking advantage of modern nanoscale integrated circuit technology. The overall goal of the project is to discover the theory, design the circuits, and verify the operation of scalable analog computation units with multi-GHz bandwidths that can be seamlessly integrated into modern digital computation architectures, thus enabling novel hybrid (analog/digital) computing paradigms.This "planning" research is designed to obtain the foundational knowledge, derive the requirements and specifications, and determine the teaming needs for an eventual full project to the CRI program that will enable the CISE community to more easily explore this "beyond Moore" computing paradigm. In particular, it will provide shared resources for developing and using radio frequency (RF) analog accelerators for various scientific computing applications. This CI-P planning activities will explore several mathematical models that can be efficiently mapped to massively-parallel integrated analog accelerators. The mathematical models may include simplified versions of difficult scientific computing problems (e.g., the shallow-water version of the Navier-Stokes equations) and important problems in engineering (e.g., Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism). The planning stage will include a one-day "Ideas Workshop" to facilitate informal discussions between CISE researchers belonging to several universities who are either experienced in analog and hybrid computing, or have significant interest in the topic. The project includes significant educational and outreach activities, including outreach activities at local high schools in the Cleveland-Akron area, summer workshops at the lead-PI's laboratory at the University of Akron, and mentorship/research experiences at Case Western Reserve University.