Alpha Data ADM-XRC-5T2-ADV Manual de usuario descargar pdf (Pagina 13)

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by Dr. Robert Trout, Founder, Pico Computing, Inc.

Technology

Viewpoint

Moving Beyond Processors

in the Petaflop Wars

Wherever the enemy goes, let our troops go also.

at quote, from Ulysses S. Grant, could be applied to modern

computation as well as to strategies on the battleﬁeld.

In computing, the enemy is unprocessed data. For decades

we have waged war on this data by funneling it into the

narrow canyons of traditional CPUs. We have pummeled

it with increasingly sophisticated weaponry: pipelined

instruction streams, faster caches, faster clock speeds,

larger and faster memories. And yet we continue to lose

ground, as the amount of data to be processed grows at

rates far in excess of available CPU resources.

In recent years, the computing industry has developed

and deployed hybrid platforms that combine traditional

CPUs with non-traditional co-processor accelerators.

These platforms are used in everything from embedded

systems, in which DSPs and FPGAs share computing duties

with embedded RISC processors, to the largest and fasted

supercomputers, in which high-end multicore processors

are paired with such devices as Cell processors, GPUs and

more exotic coprocessor modules.

For many applications, however, these complex and expen-

sive coprocessor systems are highly wasteful; they continue

to move data endlessly in and out of those same computing

canyons, consuming vast amounts of power to do so.

How do we increase our successes in the war on data? We

take our troops to the enemy. Rather than deploying large

numbers of general-purpose CPUs, GPUs and other semi-

specialized coprocessors, let us instead get the legacy

processors off the front lines. Traditional CPUs and their

coprocessor lieutenants may still handle the majority of

the world’s data, for years to come, but let’s stop trying

to use them to solve problems for which they were never

a good match. Instead, let’s consider reconfigurable

methods, in which we adapt our computations to meet the

challenges of the data.

Consider, for example, applications in genomics and

cryptography. Both domains require massive numbers of

computations to be performed on very large sets of data.

The characteristics of these algorithms make them ideally

suited to finer-grained parallel computing methods such

as FPGA clusters. These domains are not unique; in fact,

many other algorithms that currently consume billions of

dollars worth of the world’s computing resources can be

more efficiently performed using much simpler, more effi-

cient computing methods – methods in which traditional

processors provide much less of the total computing.

While they are not perfectly suited to all computations,

FPGA clusters are well-proven and reliable, and they are

now being deployed in large-scale applications that were

until recently in the domains of CPUs. We are seeing enor-

mous gains in computing speeds and astonishing reductions

in power usage, in algorithms such as DNA sequencing,

password recovery and financial analytics. And there are

certain to be other data-intensive application domains in

which entirely new algorithmic approaches will appear,

as researchers and programmers learn to apply massively

parallel computing techniques.

In summary, FPGA-based cluster computing is real and

it has the potential to fundamentally change the rules of

engagement for an increasingly broad set of applications.

The programming of high performance, highly parallel

algorithms on FPGAs remains a challenge; new skills are

required. But for those who make the effort, the spoils of

war are many.

Dr. Robert Trout is President of Pico Com-

puting. Dr. Trout has over three decades

of experience with embedded and high

performance computing. Prior to founding

Pico Computing, he was the Founder and

President of Anzus, Inc. where he developed

and patented innovative data compression

algorithms. Dr. Trout earned his PhD at the University of

Illinois. Pico Computing specializes in highly integrated

cluster computing platforms based on FPGA technologies,

as well as consulting and engineering services. www.pico-

computing.com.

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