Title
Generalize or Die: Operating Systems Support for Memristor-Based Accelerators
Abstract
The deceleration of transistor feature size scaling has motivated growing adoption of specialized accelerators implemented as GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, and more recently new types of computing such as neuromorphic, bio-inspired, ultra low energy, reversible, stochastic, optical, quantum, combinations, and others unforeseen. There is a tension between specialization and generalization, with the current state trending to master slave models where accelerators (slaves) are instructed by a general purpose system (master) running an Operating System (OS). Traditionally, an OS is a layer between hardware and applications and its primary function is to manage hardware resources and provide a common abstraction to applications. Does this function, however, apply to new types of computing paradigms? This paper revisits OS functionality for memristor-based accelerators. We explore one accelerator implementation, the Dot Product Engine (DPE), for a select pattern of applications in machine learning, imaging, and scientific computing and a small set of use cases. We explore typical OS functionality, such as reconfiguration, partitioning, security, virtualization, and programming. We also explore new types of functionality, such as precision and trustworthiness of reconfiguration. We claim that making an accelerator, such as the DPE, more general will result in broader adoption and better utilization.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1109/ICRC.2017.8123649
2017 IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing (ICRC)
Keywords
DocType
ISBN
memristor,transistor feature size scaling,specialized accelerators,ultra low energy,master slave models,general purpose system,Operating System,primary function,hardware resources,accelerator implementation,scientific computing,typical OS functionality,Dot Product Engine,machine learning
Conference
978-1-5386-1554-6
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.39
15
Authors
11
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Pedro Bruel141.11
Sai Rahul Chalamalasetti213616.33
Chris I. Dalton314315.21
Izzat El Hajj4796.91
Alfredo Goldman524824.76
Catherine Graves6523.86
Wen-mei W. Hwu74322511.62
Phil Laplante820.39
Dejan S. Milojicic924931.80
Geoffrey Ndu1020.39
John Paul Strachan1128017.84