CSR: Small: Collaborative Research: Dependable Real-Time Computing on Heterogeneous Chip Multiprocessor Systems

在单个芯片上提供多个处理器的芯片多处理器（CMP）系统（也称为多核系统）已经取代单处理器架构作为计算平台的事实上的标准模型。这一变化是因为与传统设计相比，CMP提供了上级性能和功率效率。CMP时代的一个新兴特征是在同一平台上部署几种不同类型的处理元件，这些处理元件具有不同的计算速度和功耗特性。另一个复杂的因素是过度配置设计的趋势，其中由于功率和热约束，在任何时候只有可用内核的子集可以是活动的。这种异构CMP越来越多地部署在具有不同安全保证（可靠性）和及时性要求的应用程序必须在同一CMP上共存的系统中。因此，越来越需要一种集成框架来在应用程序之间分配CMP的异构硬件资源，以有效地利用资源，同时确保满足应用程序的各种安全性和时效性要求。本项目旨在开发模型，算法，和运行时管理方案，用于在共享的异构CMP平台上运行的具有不同定时和可靠性要求的混合的应用程序集合。 特别是，一个中心目标是开发一个合理的方法，选择性地应用已知的硬件和软件容错机制（如模块化冗余，任务复制，重新执行），这样的混合可靠性应用，同时考虑资源，功率和时序约束。第二个目标是扩展该框架，以应对突发性运行时故障的挑战，这些故障可能会在有限的时间窗口内同时影响多个应用程序。这些努力的成功可以提高安全性，降低我们大家所依赖的日益复杂的网络物理系统的开发和生产成本。 教育和外联活动包括将研究的各个方面纳入两个参与机构的本科生和研究生课程，让学生作为研究助理参与，以及努力从代表性不足的人口群体中招募学生参与者。

Chip multiprocessor (CMP) systems, which provide multiple processors on a single chip, also known as multicore systems, have displaced single-processor architectures as the de facto standard model for computing platforms. This change is due to the fact that the CMPs offer superior performance and power efficiency, compared to the traditional designs. An emerging feature of the CMP era is the deployment of several different types of processing elements on the same platform, with varying computation speed and power consumption characteristics. An additional complicating factor is that a trend toward overprovisioned designs, where only a subset of the available cores can be active at any time, due to power and thermal constraints. Such heterogeneous CMPs are increasingly being deployed in systems where applications with different safety assurance (dependability) and timeliness requirements must co-exist on the same CMP. Hence, there is a growing need for an integrated framework to allocate heterogeneous hardware resources of a CMP among applications in a way that makes efficient use of the resources while assuring that the diverse safety and timeliness requirements of the applications are met.This project aims to develop models, algorithms, and run-time management schemes for collections of applications with a mix of different timing and dependability requirements running on a shared heterogeneous CMP platform. In particular, a central objective is to develop a sound methodology to selectively apply known hardware and software fault tolerance mechanisms (such as modular redundancy, task replication, re-execution) to such mixed-dependability applications, by considering resource, power, and timing constraints simultaneously. A second objective is to extend the framework to tackle the challenge of intermittent run-time faults that occur in bursts and can affect multiple applications at once during a bounded time window. Success in these efforts could improve the safety and reduce the development and production costs of the increasingly complex cyber-physical systems upon which we all have come to depend. Education and outreach activities include integration of aspects of the research into undergraduate and graduate courses at the two participating institutions, involvement of students as research assistants, and efforts to recruit student participants from under-represented demographic groups.