Accelerating Next-Generation Applications Via Secure and Reliable Compute-in-Memory Systems

通过安全可靠的内存计算系统加速下一代应用程序

• 批准号: RGPIN-2021-03729
• 负责人: Alameldeen, Alaa
• 金额: $ 2.48万
• 依托单位: Simon Fraser University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=750544
• 关键词: Accelerating; Next; Generation; Applications; Via

Computing systems execute important applications that form the backbone of the global economy, e.g., machine learning, data and graph analytics, transaction processing, and high-performance computing applications. Emerging next-generation applications include genome sequencing, precision medicine, virtual/augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and smart homes/cities. These "Big Data" applications have fast-growing data requirements, leading to an ever-increasing memory footprint. Application performance is dependent on, and limited by, the memory system. Frequent data movements between processors and memory lead to slower execution and energy inefficiency. Slower execution could be the difference between online (real-time) and offline processing, making some applications impractical. Energy inefficiency leads to higher energy costs and a growing carbon footprint for computer systems. Compute in Memory (CIM) systems reduce data movement by performing computations closer to data, leading to significant speedups and energy savings. However, commercial adoption has been hindered by significant system challenges. My research program's long-term goal is to enable breakthrough improvements in performance, security, and energy efficiency for future memory systems. This benefits the Canadian economy by enabling real-time execution of key next-generation applications, and training highly qualified personnel for future careers in academia and industry. This proposal addresses two critical but mostly unexplored challenges for CIM systems: Security and reliability. CIM Security/Privacy. Memory is vulnerable to physical, covert and side-channel attacks that could leak programs' private data. To avoid leaks, memory data is encrypted, and is only decrypted when it enters the trusted execution domain (processors and caches). To maintain data integrity and prevent corruption, message authentication codes (MAC) are used. Since CIM computes on unencrypted data, decryption and checking integrity's overheads reduce or eliminate CIM benefits. CIM Reliability. Error rates in memory systems are increasing due to memory capacity scaling (higher number of more vulnerable bit cells), and malicious software that corrupts data. Errors can manifest as failures due to detectable but uncorrectable errors or undetectable errors. Memories deploy error-correcting codes (ECC) to protect against failures. Unfortunately, slow ECC (to offset higher error rates) reduces CIM performance and energy gains. Despite their importance for CIM's commercial adoption, little research has been done to address both challenges. This proposal targets novel software, systems and architecture mechanisms to fill this crucial gap with the following objectives: (1) Modeling security and reliability features for CIM systems; (2) Accelerating computations on encrypted data; (3) Exploring and mitigating side-channel attacks on CIM systems; (4) Accelerating reliable computations on unreliable data.

计算系统执行构成全球经济支柱的重要应用程序，例如机器学习、数据和图形分析、事务处理和高性能计算应用程序。新兴的下一代应用包括基因组测序、精准医疗、虚拟/增强现实、自动驾驶汽车和智能家居/城市。这些“大数据”应用程序的数据需求快速增长，导致内存占用不断增加。应用程序性能取决于内存系统并受其限制。处理器和内存之间频繁的数据移动会导致执行速度变慢和能源效率低下。执行速度较慢可能是在线（实时）和离线处理之间的差异，使得某些应用程序不切实际。能源效率低下会导致能源成本上升以及计算机系统的碳足迹不断增加。内存计算 (CIM) 系统通过执行更接近数据的计算来减少数据移动，从而显着提高速度并节省能源。然而，重大系统挑战阻碍了商业采用。我的研究项目的长期目标是实现未来存储系统性能、安全性和能源效率的突破性改进。这可以实时执行关键的下一代应用程序，并为学术界和工业界的未来职业培训高素质人才，从而使加拿大经济受益。该提案解决了 CIM 系统的两个关键但大多数尚未探索的挑战：安全性和可靠性。 CIM 安全/隐私。内存容易受到物理、隐蔽和旁道攻击，从而可能泄露程序的私有数据。为了避免泄漏，内存数据被加密，并且只有在进入可信执行域（处理器和缓存）时才会被解密。为了维护数据完整性并防止损坏，使用消息验证码 (MAC)。由于 CIM 计算未加密的数据，因此解密和检查完整性的开销会减少或消除 CIM 的优势。 CIM 可靠性。由于内存容量扩展（易受攻击的位单元数量增多）以及破坏数据的恶意软件，内存系统中的错误率不断增加。由于可检测但不可纠正的错误或不可检测的错误，错误可能表现为失败。内存部署纠错码 (ECC) 以防止出现故障。不幸的是，缓慢的 ECC（以抵消较高的错误率）会降低 CIM 性能和能源增益。尽管它们对于 CIM 的商业应用很重要，但解决这两个挑战的研究却很少。该提案针对新颖的软件、系统和架构机制，以填补这一关键空白，并实现以下目标： (1) 对 CIM 系统的安全性和可靠性特征进行建模； (2) 加速加密数据的计算； (3) 探索并减轻对CIM系统的旁路攻击； (4) 加速对不可靠数据的可靠计算。