CSR:Small:Multi-Layer Support for Virtualizing Heterogeneous Architectures

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。具有专用协处理器的异构型架构因出色的性能和能效优势而获得发展势头。异构性带来了两个主要挑战：如何为特定任务选择最佳协处理器，以及如何将任务映射到特定加速器。程序员应该能够专注于算法和软件设计，而不必担心硬件细节或牺牲可移植性，因此为每个新的协处理器重写代码是站不住脚的。虽然可以在编译时调度和映射任务，但相互竞争的任务和不同的工作负载特征意味着有效的调度必须在运行时进行。该项目提出的解决方案是对底层系统异构性进行虚拟化，从而使程序员摆脱在实现中考虑这种异构性的负担。在运行时，系统软件层将任务调度到最有效的目标，并将程序员的虚拟任务描述映射到该目标的体系结构。该项目的总体目标是设计一个端到端的解决方案，以应对异类代码生成和优化的挑战。该项目开发了所需的功能。这项研究的智力价值在于编译器、运行时和操作系统所需的新进展。这项工作反过来又通过提高程序员的生产率和提供支持未来研究和软件开发的软件工具来产生广泛的影响。这项工作还将对研究生和本科生进行尖端计算机系统概念和设计技能方面的培训，并开发新的教育和宣传材料。该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Heterogeneous architectures with specialized coprocessors are gaining momentum due to compelling performance and energy-efficiency benefits. Heterogeneity introduces two main challenges: how to select the best coprocessor for a particular task, and how to map a task onto a particular accelerator. Programmers should be able to focus on algorithm and software design without worrying about hardware details or sacrificing portability, so rewriting code for every new coprocessor is untenable. While it is possible to schedule and map tasks at compile time, competing tasks and varying workload characteristics mean that effective scheduling must happen at runtime. The solution proposed with this project is to virtualize the underlying system heterogeneity, which frees programmers from the burden of considering this heterogeneity in their implementation. At runtime, the system software layers schedule tasks to the most effective targets and map the programmer's virtualized task description to that target's architecture. The overarching goal of this project is to design an end-to-end solution to the challenge of heterogeneous code generation and optimization. This project develops the required capabilities. The intellectual merit of this research lies in the novel advances required in the compiler, runtime, and operating system. This work in turn provides broad impact by increasing programmer productivity and providing software tools that enable future research and software development. This work will also train graduate and undergraduate students in cutting-edge computer-systems concepts and design skills, and develop new educational and outreach materials. This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).