Collaborative Research: PPoSS: Planning: A Disciplined Approach to Scaling in the Post-Moore's Law Era

通用处理器的速度在过去的15年里一直没有以历史速度增长。设计人员转而为可扩展的计算系统提供了额外的障碍，以实现每一代处理器曾经“免费”的性能提升。 这种情况减缓了所有涉及可伸缩计算的努力的进展。 要扭转这一趋势，一个有纪律的方法必须从与面临这些障碍的可伸缩系统用户和程序员的直接接触开始，并结束。为了实现这一目标，调查人员正在与广泛的用户进行深入的面对面访谈。 此外，项目组还与这些用户一起检查代码，交流想法并提供帮助。 这使我们深刻理解用户如何应对他们不断增长的计算需求，而计算对他们提出了更多的要求。 该项目的新颖之处在于深入的研究和由此产生的一种方法，以解决基于真实的用户需求的可扩展计算的局限性。 该项目的影响是传播调查结果和推荐的方法，该方法将有意义的抽象层恢复到可扩展系统中，使程序员免于更深地陷入可扩展计算的复杂性，同时为他们提供更高的性能。 有了这项规划补助金：（1）他们正在进行一项更雄心勃勃的研究，涉及的学科更加多样化。 通过尽可能多地重新参与2011年的主题，这成为一项纵向研究，能够揭示任何单一时间点研究中看不到的趋势。 (2)研究人员正在利用这些互动来探索将基础工作转化为实践，建立更大的团队并扩大未来工作的范围。 2011年的研究结果启发了研究人员在推测、依赖处理、延迟容忍和自动并行化方面取得突破。2021年的研究是探索如何将这些结果转化为实践的工具。 (3)研究人员认为，硬件可以更适合领域，而不需要特定于领域。 利用先前的见解，他们正在探索硬件/软件概念，提供最高的性能水平，而没有过度的程序员负担。 通过在研究的背景下测试这些想法，研究人员可以最好地框定问题，改进方法，并在实际需求，机会和限制的背景下测试假设。 所有这些活动都确保了可扩展系统的未来工作将产生更大的影响。该奖项反映了NSF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。

General-purpose processor speeds have not increased at their historical rates for over 15 years. Designers have instead offered scalable computing systems with additional barriers to realizing the performance gains that once came "for free" with each processor generation. This situation has slowed the progress of all endeavors that involve scalable computing. A disciplined approach to reversing this trend must start and end with a direct engagement with the scalable-system users and programmers faced with these barriers. With this goal, the investigators are performing in-depth face-to-face interviews with a broad set of users. In addition, with these users, the project team is also examining codes, exchanging ideas, and offering assistance. This is producing a deep understanding of how users are coping with their growing demands for computing while computing is placing more demands upon them. The project’s novelties are this in-depth study and the resulting formulation of an approach to address the limitations of scalable computing based on real users' needs. The project’s impacts are the dissemination of the survey results and a recommended approach forward that restores meaningful layers of abstraction to scalable systems, freeing programmers from being drawn deeper into the complexity of scalable computing while delivering higher performance to them.The investigators performed a similar study in 2011. With this planning grant: (1) They are conducting a more ambitious study with agreater diversity of subjects. By re-engaging as many 2011 subjects as possible, this becomes a longitudinal study capable of revealingtrends not visible in any single point-in-time study. (2) The investigators are using these interactions to explore transitioningtheir foundational work to practice, to build a larger team, and to expand the scope of future work. The results of the 2011 study inspired the investigators to produce breakthroughs in speculation, dependence handling, latency tolerance, and automatic parallelization. The 2021 study serves as a vehicle to explore ways to transition these results to practice. (3) The investigators believe that hardware can be more domain-adept without being domain-specific. Using prior insights, they are exploring hardware/software concepts that deliver top performance levels without undue programmer burden. By testing these ideas in the context of the study, the investigators can best frame the problem, refine approaches, and test hypotheses in the context of actual needs, opportunities, and constraints. All of these activities ensure that future work in scalable systems will have greater impact.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.