CPA-CPL-T: REEact: A Robust Execution Environment for Fragile Multicore Systems

CPA-CPL-T：REEact：适用于脆弱多核系统的稳健执行环境

• 批准号: 0811352
• 负责人: Bruce Childers
• 金额: $ 19.9万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0811352&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CPA; CPL; REEact; Robust; Execution

With the emergence of the multicore architecture comes the promise of integrating enormous computing power in a single chip, thereby enabling parallel computing in all types of platforms including handheld computers and desktop machines. Providing proper software support for applications is critical to harness the true power of this architecture. An inherent characteristic of multicores that presents a significant obstacle is runtime variation: reliability, energy/thermal behavior and process variation will vary across identically designed components of a multicore, producing a negative impact on application power consumption and performance. Runtime variation has been identified as one of the key problems that could block further scaling of circuits if not properly addressed. This research project is developing an advanced execution system, called a Robust Execution Environment (REEact), that dynamically mediates, controls and adapts an application's execution to the runtime resource landscape originating from runtime variations. It employs a combination of techniques in adapting both the hardware resources and the application software code to overcome the impact of runtime variations. At the hardware level, it adapts the resources, such as setting the speed/voltage of a node on the multicore. At the software level, REEact dynamically optimizes code, taking into account performance and power consumption due to runtime variations. It elicits the help of the OS in determining what resources to use in running the application. REEact informs the OS about information it dynamically discovers about latency, power, and application behavior. REEact is built as multi-layer hierarchical runtime system that interacts with the parallel application, the OS, and the underlying multicore architecture to ensure that maximum performance is achieved.

随着多核架构的出现，人们有望在单个芯片中集成巨大的计算能力，从而在包括手持计算机和台式机在内的所有类型平台上实现并行计算。为应用程序提供适当的软件支持对于发挥该架构的真正威力至关重要。多核的一个固有特征带来了重大障碍，那就是运行时变化：可靠性、能量/热行为和工艺变化在多核的相同设计组件之间会有所不同，从而对应用功耗和性能产生负面影响。运行时变化已被确定为关键问题之一，如果不妥善解决，可能会阻碍电路的进一步扩展。该研究项目正在开发一种称为鲁棒执行环境 (REEact) 的高级执行系统，该系统可以动态地调节、控制和调整应用程序的执行，以适应源自运行时变化的运行时资源环境。它采用组合技术来调整硬件资源和应用软件代码，以克服运行时变化的影响。在硬件层面，它调整资源，例如设置多核上节点的速度/电压。在软件层面，REEact 动态优化代码，同时考虑到运行时变化导致的性能和功耗。它引起操作系统的帮助来确定运行应用程序时使用哪些资源。 REEact 向操作系统通知其动态发现的有关延迟、功耗和应用程序行为的信息。 REEact 被构建为多层分层运行时系统，与并行应用程序、操作系统和底层多核架构交互，以确保实现最大性能。