ITR/NGS: Transactions Everywhere

这个垂直整合的研究项目重新聚焦于Herlihy和Moss最初提出的HTM，但采用了这样的观点，即事务应该是规则，而不是在代码中不频繁发生，而不是例外。也就是说，用户代码应该几乎总是在某个事务内执行。研究人员认为，事务无处不在的方法可以极大地简化并行编程，并且硬件支持可以使开销微不足道。为了验证他们的假设，他们计划为HTM开发一个FPGA原型处理器和存储系统，一个类似C语言的语言框架，对到处事务的编译器支持，调试器和其他软件工程工具，语义和性能的理论基础，以及展示事务无处不在环境优势的多线程应用程序。拟议的研究将利用麻省理工学院计算机科学实验室已经开发的现有基础设施。现场可编程门阵列原型将有助于LCS内几个研究小组正在开发的快速硬件原型设施。语言学和编译器研究将利用已经为Cilk开发的软件技术，Cilk是一种多线程C语言，具有被证明是良好的运行时系统。无处不在的事务可能代表着朝着使并行计算变得实用和无处不在迈出了一大步。

This vertically integrated research project refocuses on Herlihy and Moss's original proposal of HTM, but adopting the point of view that transactions, rather than occurring infrequently in code, should be the rule, not the exception. That is, user code should almost always be executing within some transaction. The researchers contend that the transactions-everywhere approach can simplify parallel programming dramatically and that hardware support can make overheads negligible. To test their hypothesis, they plan to develop an FPGA prototype processor and memory system for HTM, a linguistic framework for C-like languages, compiler support for transactions everywhere, debuggers and other software-engineering tools, theoretical foundations for semantics and performance, and ultithreaded applications that demonstrate the advantages of a transactions-everywhere environment. The proposed research will leverage existing infrastructure already developed within the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. The FPGA prototype will contribute to a fast hardware-prototyping facility being developed by several research groups within LCS. The linguistic and compiler research will exploit the software technologies already developed for Cilk, a multithreaded C language with a provably good runtime system. Transactions everywhere potentially represents a big step towards making parallel computing practical and ubiquitous.