SPX: Collaborative Research: Intelligent Communication Fabrics to Facilitate Extreme Scale Computing

在过去的几十年里，高性能计算的进步使科学和工程中的各种重要应用成为可能。半导体技术日益面临基本的物理限制。硬件/软件协同设计的新方法现在在极端规模下实现了更高的性能。这个项目将探索两种新的方法：可配置性和集成。可配置性使硬件能够更好地映射到应用程序。集成使通常具有单一功能的系统组件能够获得额外的功能。一个例子是用于数据传输的网络。这样的网络还可以在传输数据时对数据进行操作。集成使计算在体系结构和网络中无处不在。可配置性和集成将导致更有效地使用计算资源。这些资源包括高性能计算机。该项目的另一个重点将是现场可编程门阵列（fpga）的使用。fpga是一种应用广泛的集成电路。在fpga中，硬件可以配置为与应用相匹配。fpga将允许将研究产品部署到生产系统中。它们还将允许对系统设计中的变化进行评估。这项工作将推进极端规模计算的应用。这些应用包括医药和新药发现。该项目还将包括研究生和本科生的培训。该项目的中心主题是硬件可配置性和集成的中心地位，这意味着必须打破至少两个旧的系统抽象。首先，这个项目将证明计算和通信不应再由各自的竖井组成。其次，它将演示应用程序不应该再映射到固定的硬件。在它们的位置上，必须围绕以应用程序为中心的系统的思想构建新的软硬件抽象。该项目将确定新的计算模式——计算分配/卸载和可配置硬件——这将是应用程序感知的，应用程序与计算机系统的紧密映射。这种改进的映射反过来又需要部署许多机制，从改进的编译器和高质量的应用程序库开始，扩展到轻量级的智能中间件（例如，改进的消息传递接口中间件）、自动应用程序修改、动态自动调优，以及在所有这些组件中辅助的机器学习。该项目将在适当的时候考虑所有这些问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Advances in High-Performance Computing over the last several decades have enabled various important applications throughout science and engineering. Semiconductor technology increasingly faces fundamental physical limits. New approaches to hardware/software co-design are now achieving higher performance at extreme scales. This project will explore two new approaches: configurability and integration. Configurability enables hardware to map better to applications. Integration enables system components that have generally been single function to gain additional functionality. An example is a network for the transport of data. Such a network might also operate on that data as it is being transported. Integration enables compute everywhere in the architecture and network. Configurability and integration will lead to much more efficient use of computing resources. Such resources include high-performance computers. Another focus of this project will be in the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). FPGAs are a widely used type of integrated circuit. In FPGAs the hardware can be configured to match the application. FPGAs will allow the deployment of the research products into production systems. They will also allow evaluation of changes in system design. This work will advance extreme-scale computing applications. Such applications include medicine and new drug discovery. This project will also include training of graduate and undergraduate students. It will focus on students belonging to groups underrepresented in STEM disciplinesThe central theme of this project is that emerging centrality of hardware configurability and integration means that at least two old systems abstractions must be broken. First, this project will demonstrate that computation and communication should no longer comprise separate silos. Second, it will demonstrate that applications should no longer be mapped to fixed hardware. In their place, new hardware-software abstractions must necessarily be built around the idea of the application-centric system. This project will identify new computing modes -- computation distribution/offload and configurable hardware -- that will be application aware with tight mapping of applications to computer systems. This improved mapping, in turn, will require deploying a number of mechanisms, starting with improved compilers and high-quality application libraries but extending to lighter-weight yet intelligent middleware (for instance, improved Message Passing Interface middleware), automated application modification, dynamic autotuning, and machine learning assisting in all of these components. The project will consider all of these concerns in due course.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.