SHF: Small: Using Coding Theory to Optimize the Representation of Information in Computer Architecture

SHF：小：利用编码理论优化计算机体系结构中的信息表示

• 批准号: 1421177
• 负责人: Daniel Sorin
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1421177&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SHF; Small; Using; Coding; Theory

Computer systems process and store information, includinginstructions, inputs, and outputs. Computers represent, or "encode",this information with bits -- zeros and ones -- such that a givensequence of bits can describe a number, an instruction, a character toprint to the monitor, etc. The choice of bit patterns used to encodedifferent types of information impacts the performance, reliability,and energy-efficiency of a computer. This project -- which is aninterdisciplinary collaboration between a computer systems architectand an expert in information coding -- will develop new informationrepresentations that improve performance, reliability, andenergy-efficiency. This project will have both technical impact oncomputer system design and information coding, and it will impactsociety through its training of students (both graduate andundergraduate) and an outreach program that brings under-representedminorities to Duke for summer research experiences. This project will make technical advances in four main avenues.First, the project will develop new representations for theinformation that is stored in write-limited storage media like Flash,with the goal of extending its lifetime. A key coding technology inthis research thrust is coset coding, in which the system has multiplechoices for which codeword to write to the storage and can choose theoption that incurs the least wear. Second, the project will developnew codes, based on existing locally repairable codes, for writing toall types of storage that can suffer permanent failures. These codescan enable efficient, local repair of failures by minimizing thenumber of storage locations that must be accessed to perform therepair. Third, the project will develop new representations ofinstructions to improve performance and energy-efficiency. Inparticular, the project will develop new encodings of instructions forGPUs that enable useful work to be done even in the presence of branchdivergence. Fourth, the project will develop and apply network codingtechniques to improve the performance and reliability of communicationbetween processor cores.

计算机系统处理和存储信息，包括指令、输入和输出。 计算机用位（零和一）表示或“编码”此信息，以便给定的位序列可以描述数字、指令、要打印到监视器的字符等。用于编码不同的位模式的选择信息类型影响计算机的性能、可靠性和能源效率。 该项目是计算机系统架构师和信息编码专家之间的跨学科合作，将开发新的信息表示形式，以提高性能、可靠性和能源效率。 该项目将对计算机系统设计和信息编码产生技术影响，并将通过对学生（研究生和本科生）的培训以及将代表性不足的少数族裔带到杜克大学进行夏季研究经验的外展计划来影响社会。该项目将在四个主要方面取得技术进步。首先，该项目将为存储在闪存等写限制存储介质中的信息开发新的表示形式，目标是延长其寿命。 本研究中的一项关键编码技术是陪集编码，其中系统对于将哪个码字写入存储器有多种选择，并且可以选择磨损最小的选项。 其次，该项目将基于现有的本地可修复代码开发新代码，用于写入可能遭受永久性故障的所有类型的存储。 这些代码可以通过最大限度地减少执行修复时必须访问的存储位置的数量来实现高效的本地故障修复。 第三，该项目将开发新的指令表示形式，以提高性能和能源效率。 特别是，该项目将为 GPU 开发新的指令编码，即使存在分支分歧，也能完成有用的工作。 第四，该项目将开发和应用网络编码技术，以提高处理器内核之间通信的性能和可靠性。