Galaxy: A High-Performance Energy-Efficient Multi-Chip Architecture using Photonic Interconnects
Event details
| Date | 24.04.2014 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 15:30 |
| Speaker | Prof. Nikos Hardavellas, Northwestern University |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The scalability trends of modern semiconductor technology lead to increasingly dense multicore chips. Unfortunately, physical limitations in area, power, off-chip bandwidth, and yield constrain single-chip designs to a relatively small number of cores, beyond which scaling becomes impractical. Multi-chip designs overcome these constraints, and can reach scales impossible to realize with conventional single-chip architectures. However, to deliver commensurate performance, multi-chip architectures require a cross-chip interconnect with bandwidth, latency, and energy consumption well beyond the reach of electrical signaling. In this talk I will describe Galaxy, an architecture that enables the construction of a many-core “virtual macrochip” by connecting multiple smaller chiplets through optical fibers. The low optical loss of fibers allows the flexible placement of chiplets, and offers simpler packaging, power, and heat requirements. At the same time, the low latency and high bandwidth density of optical signaling maintain the tight coupling of cores, allowing the virtual chip to match the performance of a single chip that is not subject to area, power, and bandwidth limitations. Galaxy outperforms the best alternative by 2-4x and attains 3-7x lower energy-delay product, while it can scale beyond 4K cores. On top of this, Ge-based on-chip lasers allow control mechanisms to adapt the laser to the interconnect demands, saving up to 77% of the laser power.
Bio: Nikos Hardavellas is the June and Donald Brewer Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University. His research interests include parallel computer architecture, memory systems, optical interconnects, elastic fidelity computing, and design for dark silicon. Prior to joining Northwestern University, he contributed to the design of several generations of Alpha processors and high-end multiprocessor servers at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Compaq Computer Corp., and Hewlett-Packard. He became a Searle Fellow in 2012, and received an IEEE Micro Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences in 2010, a Best Demonstration Award in ICDE 2006, and a Technical Award for Contributions to the Alpha Microprocessor from Compaq Computer Corp. in 2000. Nikos holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. multiprocessor servers at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Compaq Computer Corp., and Hewlett-Packard. He became a Searle Fellow in 2012, and received an IEEE Micro Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences in 2010, a Best Demonstration Award in ICDE 2006, and a Technical Award for Contributions to the Alpha Microprocessor from Compaq Computer Corp. in 2000. Nikos holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Bio: Nikos Hardavellas is the June and Donald Brewer Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University. His research interests include parallel computer architecture, memory systems, optical interconnects, elastic fidelity computing, and design for dark silicon. Prior to joining Northwestern University, he contributed to the design of several generations of Alpha processors and high-end multiprocessor servers at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Compaq Computer Corp., and Hewlett-Packard. He became a Searle Fellow in 2012, and received an IEEE Micro Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences in 2010, a Best Demonstration Award in ICDE 2006, and a Technical Award for Contributions to the Alpha Microprocessor from Compaq Computer Corp. in 2000. Nikos holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. multiprocessor servers at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Compaq Computer Corp., and Hewlett-Packard. He became a Searle Fellow in 2012, and received an IEEE Micro Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences in 2010, a Best Demonstration Award in ICDE 2006, and a Technical Award for Contributions to the Alpha Microprocessor from Compaq Computer Corp. in 2000. Nikos holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Babak Falsafi
Contact
- Stéphanie Baillargues