EAGER:Stochastic Thermodynamics of Distributed Computation

社会正在见证分布式计算系统部署的爆炸式增长，特别是在网络系统体系结构及其伴随的软件协议中。这些系统的主要性能挑战之一是能源效率低下；它们散发了太多的热量。同样，芯片设计的一个主要目标是最小化单个纳米级组件的散热和/或应用现象学定律来减少整体架构的散热。然而，理论计算机科学研究的重点是设计算法，使每次计算的时间和内存成本最小化。迄今为止，很少有人利用物理学的第一原理来分析计算机的整体结构组织如何影响它们的散热。因此，本研究的目标是了解分布式计算系统的物理特性（例如，通信速率、网络拓扑和异构性）如何影响其性能，特别是其散热、空间和时间资源成本、鲁棒性、速度和计算能力之间的关系。除技术工作外，该计划亦会进行以下工作：(i)透过新课程进行外展；（ii）支持辅导学生/博士后，从而增加受过技术训练的人力资源；以及（iii）向公众及媒体外展，以增加公众对科学的了解。这个探索性项目旨在通过利用最近开发的随机热力学工具来填补科学理解上的空白。PI将调查计算机的整体物理体系结构的以下特征如何影响其成本：(1)子系统之间信息传输的通信速率和准确性；(2)体系结构的网络拓扑特征，特别是层次结构和模块化；(3)各个子系统之间的异质性。具体来说，该项目将研究这些设计特性如何影响时间、内存和热量成本之间的权衡；所需的计算能力；以及对环境波动或故障子系统的稳健性。调查将包括计算机模拟，这将有助于揭示这些权衡中的模式和趋势，以及理论分析，这将有助于揭示所观察到的模式的数学基础。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。

Society is witnessing explosive growth in the deployment of distributed computational systems, especially in networked system architectures, and their accompanying software protocols. One of the main performance challenges in these systems is poor energy efficiency; they dissipate too much heat. Similarly, a major goal of chip design has been to minimize the heat dissipation of individual nanoscale components and/or to apply phenomenological laws to reduce the heat dissipation of the global architecture. However, theoretical computer science research has focused on the design of algorithms that minimize time and memory costs per computation. To date there has been little use of first principles of physics to analyze how the global structural organization of computers affects their heat dissipation. Thus, the goal of the proposed research is to develop an understanding of how the physical features of a distributed computational system (e.g., communication rates, network topology, and heterogeneity) affect its performance, specifically the relationship between its heat dissipation, space and time resource costs, robustness, speed, and computational power. Besides the technical work the project will also undertake: (i) outreach via new coursework in the context of this project, (ii) support of mentoring students/postdocs thereby increasing the pool of technically trained workforce, and (iii) public and media outreach for increasing public understanding of science.This exploratory project will aim to start to fill this gap in scientific understanding by exploiting the recently developed tools of stochastic thermodynamics. The PI will use investigate how the following features of the global physical architecture of a computer affect its cost: (1) communication rate and accuracy of information transmission between subsystems, (2) characteristics of the network topology of the architecture, particularly hierarchy and modularity, (3) heterogeneity among the individual subsystems. Specifically, the project will investigate how these design features affect trade-offs between time, memory, and heat costs; desired computational capabilities; and robustness against environmental fluctuations or faulty subsystems. The investigations will involve computer simulations, which will help reveal patterns and trends in these trade-offs, as well as theoretical analyses, which will help uncover the mathematical basis of the observed pattern.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.