CSR: Small: Collaborative Research: Real-Time Computing Infrastructure for Integrated CPU-GPU SoC Platforms

自动驾驶汽车和无人机需要高计算性能来处理大量实时数据，同时将其尺寸、重量、功率和成本保持在可接受的水平。图形处理单元（GPU）是专门设计的硬件，可以高效地处理如此大的数据。因此，它越来越多地被集成到新一代的计算机芯片中。不幸的是，由于对共享硬件资源的不规范使用，这种集成芯片通常会表现出不可预测的时序行为，这可能会阻止关键任务的及时执行。该项目将为GPU集成计算机芯片创建新的实时计算基础设施，以提供可预测的时序和高性能。该项目将为GPU集成计算平台创建新的资源管理算法、任务模型、实时同步协议和可调度性分析方法，显著提高时间可预测性和效率，减少分析悲观情绪。该项目有三个研究目标。第一个目标是开发软件机制，以最小的程序员干预将最坏情况内存干扰限制在可控范围内。第二个目标是在不牺牲关键实时任务的时间可预测性的情况下最大化系统资源利用率。第三个目标是为提议的计算基础设施开发建模和分析方法。该项目有几个直接的经济和社会影响。这项研究将大大提高GPU集成计算平台的时间可预测性和效率，这些平台用于安全关键的网络物理系统，特别是在汽车和航空工业中。考虑到汽车行业的市场规模和航空行业的高认证成本，该项目的预期改进可以转化为数十亿美元的节省。研究成果将通过公共代码库传播，并整合到研究生和本科生课程中。特别是，自动驾驶汽车和无人机测试平台将用于提高学生在课堂上的参与度。研究工件，如修改后的Linux内核的源代码、用户级库和工具，将在项目期间或之后通过开源存储库https://github.com/CSL-KU/igpu-rm公开提供。研究成果将通过科学期刊和会议进行报告。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Autonomous cars and drones demand high computational performance to process massive amount of real-time data while also keeping their size, weight, power and cost to an acceptable level. Graphics processing unit (GPU) is specially designed hardware to efficiently process such large data. Therefore, it is increasingly being integrated in new generations of computer chips. Unfortunately, such integrated chips often exhibit unpredictable timing behaviors due to unregulated use of shared hardware resources that can prevent timely execution of critical tasks. This project will create a new real-time computing infrastructure for GPU integrated computer chips to provide predictable timing and high-performance.The project will create new resource management algorithms, task models, real-time synchronization protocols, and schedulability analysis methodologies for GPU integrated computing platforms that significantly improve time predictability and efficiency, and reduce analysis pessimism, compared to the state-of-the art. The project has three research objectives. The first objective is to develop software mechanisms to bound worst-case memory interference to controllable limits with minimal programmer intervention. The second objective is to maximize system resource utilization without sacrificing timing predictability of critical real-time tasks. The third objective is to develop modeling and analysis methodologies for the proposed computing infrastructure.The project has several direct economic and societal impacts. This research will greatly improve temporal predictability and efficiency of GPU integrated computing platforms, which are used for safety-critical cyber-physical systems---particularly in automotive and aviation industries. Considering the market size of automotive industry and the high certification cost in aviation industry, the expected improvements of the project can be translated into multi-billion-dollar saving. The research outcomes will be disseminated via public code repositories and integrated into graduate and undergraduate courses. In particular, autonomous car and drone testbeds will be used to increase student engagement in the classes.Research artifacts, such as source code of modified Linux kernel, user-level library, and tools will be publicly available via open-source repositories at https://github.com/CSL-KU/igpu-rm for the duration of the project and beyond. Research findings will be reported via scientific journals and conferences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.