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Programmable Architectures for Programmable Architectures for Communication SystemsCommunication Systems

D. K. ArvindD. K. Arvind

Institute for Computing Systems Architecture,Institute for Computing Systems Architecture,

Division of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh,Division of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh,

Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland.Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland.

Email: dka@dcs.ed.ac.ukEmail: dka@dcs.ed.ac.uk

http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~dka

Edinburgh - The Capital CityEdinburgh - The Capital City

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OverviewOverview

University of Edinburgh

Division of Informatics

Edinburgh InfoLab

Research

Collaboration

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University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh

Founded in 1583

Student Population - 18,023 :

Undergraduate - 15,350; Postgraduate - 2,673

Staff - 6,649 :

Academic Staff - 3,312

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““Informatics is the study of the structure, behaviour, Informatics is the study of the structure, behaviour, and interactions of both natural and artificial and interactions of both natural and artificial

computational systems.”computational systems.”((http://www.informatics.ed.ac.uk/)http://www.informatics.ed.ac.uk/)

Division of Informatics

•Institute for Adaptive and Neural ComputationInstitute for Adaptive and Neural Computation

•Centre for Intelligent Systems and their ApplicationsCentre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications

•Institute for Communicating and Collaborative SystemsInstitute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems

•Institute for Perception, Action and BehaviourInstitute for Perception, Action and Behaviour

•Laboratory for Foundations of Computer ScienceLaboratory for Foundations of Computer Science

•Institute for Computing Systems ArchitectureInstitute for Computing Systems Architecture

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Division of InformaticsDivision of Informatics Informatics@Edinburgh enjoys an international

reputation for both its teaching and research

Only department in the UK awarded the top 5*A research rating in Computer Science in Dec. 2001

UK’s biggest department with 87 research-active staff and 165 PhD students

Edinburgh-Stanford strategic research partnership

Location of the National e-Science Centre

Awarded top Excellent rating in the Teaching Quality Assessment

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The Future ….The Future ….• Proliferation of Peer-to-Peer computingProliferation of Peer-to-Peer computing

• fundamental force of change and restructuringfundamental force of change and restructuring• ExamplesExamples

• Cybiko - P2P wireless networked gamesCybiko - P2P wireless networked games• Napster - P2P sharing of musicNapster - P2P sharing of music• Freenet - P2P information storeFreenet - P2P information store• DoCoMo – P2P communicationDoCoMo – P2P communication

• Unregulated communications channelsUnregulated communications channels• ISM, UWB, free-space optics, …..ISM, UWB, free-space optics, …..

• System-on-Chip componentsSystem-on-Chip components• banalisation of silicon technologybanalisation of silicon technology

• Silicon falling behindSilicon falling behind• storage & bandwidth improving at a greater ratestorage & bandwidth improving at a greater rate

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P2P systems - ChallengesP2P systems - Challenges

• Portability - Java, .NETPortability - Java, .NET

• Performance - exploit concurrencyPerformance - exploit concurrency

• Mobility - size and energy consumptionMobility - size and energy consumption

• Flexibility - soft- and hard-programmability Flexibility - soft- and hard-programmability

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Research FocusResearch Focus

““To explore novel architectures for P2P systems using banalised To explore novel architectures for P2P systems using banalised technology, and enlighten future development of disruptive technology, and enlighten future development of disruptive products and business change”products and business change”

Our research is seeking Our research is seeking programmableprogrammable solutions which : solutions which :• harness progress in (a) technology (b) theoryharness progress in (a) technology (b) theory

• implement high-performance algorithms and applications efficientlyimplement high-performance algorithms and applications efficiently

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Disruptive technology opportunitiesDisruptive technology opportunities

System Architectures to explore …System Architectures to explore …

• Personal switch/P2P processorPersonal switch/P2P processor

• Hubless, ephemeral, transient networksHubless, ephemeral, transient networks

• Info-torch/Info-Klieg lightInfo-torch/Info-Klieg light

• P2PP2Pnn library|phone|gaming library|phone|gaming

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Trends in the silicon fabric

• Convergence of transduction, communication and computation - heterogeneous systems with sensors and actuators

• High performance computation at modest power consumption

• Pre-designed IP blocks with different timing characteristics

• The dominance of programmable fabrics - both soft- and hard-programmable

• The complexity of the designs will demand novel architectures and design styles

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The Die Area reachable in 1 clock cycle (1.2 GHz)

At 0.1um (1 Billion transistors) only 16% of the chip is reachable in 1 clock cycle

Dominance of interconnect delays over computational ones

Network of Temporal Regions

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Micronets - An alternative vision of Systems Architecture

Micronet or Network-on-Chip : a network of entities which operate concurrently and communicate asynchronously

Fractal model of system design: network of sub-systems, down to network of transistors

Control is layered and distributed locally - behaviour can be decomposed to run on architectural clusters with the optimal mix of computational elements

A clean separation between computation and communication, and, behaviour and timing - leads to a compositional design style

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Behaviour-Architecture Co-designBehaviour-Architecture Co-design

• Integration Platforms composed of networks (micronets) of heterogeneous Integration Platforms composed of networks (micronets) of heterogeneous computational entities that operate in a multi-threaded fashion.computational entities that operate in a multi-threaded fashion.

• Applications composed of software blocks: some pre-defined, such as Applications composed of software blocks: some pre-defined, such as communication protocols;communication protocols; others, more specific to the application. others, more specific to the application.

• Co-design (Step 1) : recognise concurrent operations and optimise Co-design (Step 1) : recognise concurrent operations and optimise communication at different levels of granularity in the application and communication at different levels of granularity in the application and map them to the platformmap them to the platform

• Co-design (Step 2) : explore the trade-off between programmability (both Co-design (Step 2) : explore the trade-off between programmability (both soft- and hard-), and performance (MOPS/mWatt) of the application soft- and hard-), and performance (MOPS/mWatt) of the application running on the platformrunning on the platform

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The COMPASS Design EnvironmentThe COMPASS Design Environment

•Visualisation Visualisation of energy and of energy and performance performance effects of effects of compiler compiler optimisationsoptimisations

•Distributed Distributed simulation simulation platform on a platform on a 16-node 16-node Beowulf Beowulf clustercluster

•Java or C Java or C applicationsapplications

•SSA SSA intermediate intermediate representationrepresentation

•Soft- and Hard-Soft- and Hard-programmabilityprogrammability

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Design framework for programmable multi-threaded systems

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A micronet-based multi-threaded architecture

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voidMicronet(chan tinst Inst, chan tpc Pc, chan tregval RegDump, chan Word MemDump){ //Define channels chan tinst ALUinst, MUinst; chan tpc ALUpc; chan tack ALUCUack, MUCUack; chan tregreq RegRequest; chan tregreturn Xout, Yout; chan tregval ALUXin, ALUYin, MUXin, MUYin; chan twriteback toReg, ALUWBout, MUWBout; chan bool KillBus; //Spawn linked Functional Units in Parallel //+ clock 32 par{ //Buffers for register requests //+ clock 32 ControlUnit(Inst, Pc,

ALUinst, MUinst,ALUCUack, MUCUack,ALUpc,RegRequest,KillBus);

//+ clock 50 RegisterBank(RegRequest, //Requests

//Lock writeback registers Xout, Yout, //To the bus toReg, RegDump); //Writeback

//X bus //+ clock 32 BusSplit(Xout, ALUXin, MUXin); //Y bus //+ clock 32 BusSplit(Yout, ALUYin, MUYin); //+ clock 50 ALU(ALUinst, ALUXin, ALUYin, ALUCUack, ALUpc, ALUWBout); //+ clock 32 MU(MUinst, MUXin, MUYin, MUCUack, MUWBout, MemDump); //Writeback bus //+ clock 32 BusMerge(ALUWBout, MUWBout, toReg, KillBus); }

Automatic Synthesis of Micronet Architecture from Specification Automatic Synthesis of Micronet Architecture from Specification

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Power/Speed estimations on the M/T architecture

Overall

TPU 0 TPU 1

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Power - Speed Tradeoff for Programs executing on Micronet ArchitecturesPower - Speed Tradeoff for Programs executing on Micronet Architectures

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Example of an Internet Appliance

• Bluetooth-based system in VCC

• Two physical objects: the WAPmobile, and a WAP `phone

• The behaviour of an internet- and Bluetooth-enabled Basestation, and a Bluetooth-enabled robot is simulated in VCC

• The WAP phone controls the robot in real-time via the VCC behavioural models

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Proven Research Expertise in Systems ArchitectureProven Research Expertise in Systems Architecture

• Programmable Architecture DesignProgrammable Architecture Design• Micronet-based asynchronous architecturesMicronet-based asynchronous architectures• Java and C compilation for multi-threaded embedded systemsJava and C compilation for multi-threaded embedded systems• Applications include Bluetooth- and 802.11-based onesApplications include Bluetooth- and 802.11-based ones

• Vertically-integrated environment (COMPASS) for energy-Vertically-integrated environment (COMPASS) for energy-conscious, high-performance embedded system designconscious, high-performance embedded system design

• Industrial research partners Industrial research partners • Well-endowed laboratory, including a 16-node Beowulf Well-endowed laboratory, including a 16-node Beowulf

cluster for simulations and state-of-the-art EDA toolscluster for simulations and state-of-the-art EDA tools

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Model for CollaborationModel for Collaboration

• Feature setFeature set• ‘‘Beyond the envelope’ researchBeyond the envelope’ research

• Pre-competitive : several industrial partnersPre-competitive : several industrial partners• industrial support : funding, equipment, body swap,….industrial support : funding, equipment, body swap,….

• Successful ExamplesSuccessful Examples• Silicon Structures (Caltech 1977 - 81)Silicon Structures (Caltech 1977 - 81)

• Berkeley Wireless Research Center (1998 - )Berkeley Wireless Research Center (1998 - )

• MIT Media Lab (1987 - )MIT Media Lab (1987 - )

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Road MapRoad Map

• Creation of the “Creation of the “Edinburgh InfoLabEdinburgh InfoLab” to research ” to research architectures for future P2P systemsarchitectures for future P2P systems

• 5 founding industrial partners/subscribers5 founding industrial partners/subscribers

• 30 PhD students in the steady state30 PhD students in the steady state

• Partners’ contributions: Two 4-year PhD studentships Partners’ contributions: Two 4-year PhD studentships per year, cumulatively for 3 yearsper year, cumulatively for 3 years

• Interested? Email: dka@dcs.ed.ac.ukInterested? Email: dka@dcs.ed.ac.uk

• More details at More details at http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~dkahttp://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~dka

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Thank YouThank You