Manycore Research Innovation and Opportunities Network (MaRIONet)

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The transition to manycore systems is arguably the greatest challengefacing the ICT industry, Computational Science, and Computing Scienceresearch. The challenge is globally recognised, and is an EPSRC ICT priority:Manycore Architectures in Distributed and Embedded Systems (MACDES).The proposed network will identify and bring together a critical massof UK manycore researchers. The manycore revolution is fundamentally changing multiple levels ofthe computation execution stack: from processor architecture, throughsystems software, to applications. The UK has world leadingresearchers and industrialists working on specific technologies ateach level, but currently researchers and engineers do not collaborateadequately on the complex manycore challenges. Furthermore,meaningful industry engagement is limited, despite the large number ofUK-based industrial research labs with strategic interest in manycoresystems.We will foster effective communication between academic and industrialresearch teams both at different levels in the execution stack(e.g. compiler developers targeting an emergent architecture), andwithin each level (e.g. program analysis applied to improve memoryaccess latency in the systems layer). The teams will benefit by beingable to identify and exploit synergies and opportunities forcross-pollination.We will establish well defined, highly available channels forcommunication and low-overhead mechanisms for collaboration. Giventhat many world-class UK researchers are isolated in relatively smalldepartments and research groups, the network will enable nationalsharing of ideas, information and infrastructure. Community supportand resource pooling will enable UK researchers to achieve greateracademic impact globally, competing effectively with larger,well-resourced groups in the USA (e.g. Aspire Lab at Berkeley), China(e.g. State Key Lab of Computer System and Architecture, ChineseAcademy of Sciences), and elsewhere.Both architectural innovation and systems software development aremassive investments, often involving person-decades ofeffort. MaRIONet will enable sharing of expertise and infrastructureto lower the barrier to entry for UK systems researchers working inthis area. Industrial network partners will gain exposure tocutting-edge research, and ideas to address current problems. Academicpartners gain real-world use cases and grand challenges.At least three of the UK Policy Exchange `Eight great technologies'are directly enabled by the increased scale and speed of future manycore systems and software, namely:* Big Data revolution: enabled by manycore systems for energy-efficient collection, analysis and storage of big data.* Robotics and autonomous systems: enabled by manycore systems for artificial intelligence, planning, image recognition, humanoid motion control. * Synthetic biology: enabled by manycore processing of biological data, in-silico simulation of bio-mechanisms. Hence we anticipate that future UK economic growth and societal well-beingwill be strongly influenced by manycore technology, which is the focus ofour research network.