Application Robustification

今天所有的计算都依赖于一个抽象，在这个抽象中，软件期望硬件在所有条件下对所有输入都表现出无错误的行为。然而，对于新兴的电路/设备，由于变化，维护完美硬件的抽象的成本将是令人望而却步的，我们可能需要重新考虑硬件和软件之间的正确性合同。 该项目的主要重点是应用程序健壮化？基本的算法方法来转换任意的应用程序，使它们可以继续向前发展，尽管由硬件产生的错误。在这个项目中，我们的初步研究工作集中在a）将不同类别的应用程序内核转换为鲁棒的、有效可解的随机优化问题的技术，这些问题可以容忍硬件错误，B）基于Krylov子空间方法、梯度投影、拟牛顿方法、基于随机逼近理论的方法、预处理技术、以及智能步长调整，以降低不同形式的硬件变化的鲁棒性成本，以及c）基于低开销校验和的技术，使稀疏线性代数库和图形算法鲁棒。这个项目的更广泛的影响包括开发一种潜在的有前途的方法来驾驭摩尔定律，并培训学生在面对错误时的硬件和软件方面的计算。更广泛的教育也将通过研究文物（例如，容错内核库），将可用于研究和教育。

All of computing today relies on an abstraction where software expects the hardware to behave flawlessly for all inputs under all conditions. However, for emerging circuits/devices, the cost of maintaining the abstraction of flawless hardware will be prohibitive due to variations and we may need to rethink the correctness contract between hardware and software. The primary focus of the project is application robustification ? fundamental algorithmic methodologies to transform arbitrary applications such that they can continue to make forward progress in spite of errors produced by the hardware. In this project, our preliminary research effort is focused on a) techniques to convert different classes of application kernels into robust, efficiently solvable stochastic optimization problems that can tolerate hardware errors, b) techniques based on Krylov subspace methods, gradient projection, quasi-Newton approaches, stochastic approximation theory-based approaches, preconditioning techniques, and intelligent step sizing to reduce the cost of robustness for different forms of hardware variations, and c) low overhead checksum-based techniques robustifying sparse linear algebra libraries and graph algorithms. Broader impact of this project includes development of a potentially promising approach to ride Moore's Law and training students in both the hardware and software aspects of computing in face of errors. Broader education will also be achieved through research artifacts (e.g., library of error tolerant kernels) that will be made available for research and education.