Power-Aware Multicore Processing

本提案的目标是开发降低多核处理器功耗的技术。多核处理器，也称为芯片多处理器（或简称cmp），广泛应用于从数据中心到台式机和嵌入式处理器的各种计算系统中。这些计算系统所消耗的能源占我们日常能源消耗的相当大的份额。因此，开发节能的多核处理器是绿色计算的一个关键方面。cmp通过在单个芯片上使用多个处理器内核来实现高性能。虽然这种方法已被证明为当前技术提供了有效的手段，但有几项研究表明，未来的cmp将受到功率限制。因此，为芯片提供足够的电力将需要关闭一些部分。减少这些未使用部分（也称为暗硅）比例的一种方法是开发低功率cmp。我们将研究提高未来cmp电源效率的解决方案。为了实现这一目标，我们建议开发可替代的功耗感知设计。我们将研究影响cmp整体功耗的一些问题。我们将研究大规模cmp中功率可扩展性和导致功耗过度增长的参数。我们还将分析不同CMP设计中的资源利用情况，并确定资源利用的低效率。我们将利用我们的发现来重新设计传统的cmp，以获得更好的功率效率。我们提出的研究对加拿大社会有重要的贡献。首先，拟议的研究计划旨在开发“更环保”的计算基础设施，用低功耗的替代品取代耗电的处理器。其次，由此产生的知识属于对加拿大未来在先进技术方面的领导地位至关重要的领域。许多加拿大公司可以从拟议的研究结果和由此产生的HQP培训中受益。

The goal of this proposal is to develop techniques to reduce power dissipation in multicore processors. Multicore processors, also referred to as chip multiprocessors (or simply CMPs), are employed in a wide range of computing systems from data centers to desktops and embedded processors. The energy consumed by such computing systems accounts for a considerable share of our daily energy consumption. Therefore, developing power efficient multicore processors is a critical aspect of green computing. CMPs achieve high performance by using multiple processor cores on a single chip. While this approach has proven to provide effective means for current technologies, there are several studies that suggest that future CMPs will become power limited. Consequently, providing enough power for the chip will require turning off some sections. One way to reduce the proportion of these unused sections (also referred to as dark silicon) is to develop low-power CMPs. We will investigate solutions for enhancing power efficiency in future CMPs. To achieve this goal we suggest developing alternative power-aware designs. We will investigate a number of issues influencing the overall power dissipation in CMPs. We will study power scalability and the parameters contributing to the excessive power dissipation growth in large-scale CMPs. We will also analyze resource utilization in different CMP designs and identify resource utilization inefficiencies. We will use our findings to redesign conventional CMPs for better power efficiency. Our proposed research makes important contributions to Canadian society. First, the proposed research program aims at developing "greener" computing infrastructures where power hungry processors are replaced with low-power alternatives. Second, the resulting knowledge belongs to an area critical to Canada's future leadership in advanced technologies. Many Canadian companies can benefit from the findings of the proposed research and the resulting HQP training.