Researchers Use Hardware to Accelerate Core-to-Core On-Chip Communication
September 7, 2016 | NC State UniversityEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Intel Corporation have developed a new way to significantly accelerate core-to-core communication. Their advance relies on hardware to coordinate efforts between cores for multiprocessor operations.
Many computer functions require multiple processors, or cores, to work together in a coordinated way. Currently, this coordination is achieved by sending and receiving software commands between cores. But this requires cores to read and execute the software, which takes time.
Now researchers have developed a chip design that replaces the software instructions with built-in hardware that coordinates communication between cores, accelerating the process.
“This approach, called the core-to-core communication acceleration framework (CAF), improves communication performance by two to 12 times,” says Yan Solihin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. “In other words, the execution times – from start to finish – are twice as fast or faster.”
The key to the CAF design is a queue management device (QMD), which is a small device attached to the processor network on a chip. The QMD is capable of simple computational functions and effectively keeps track of communication requests between cores without having to rely on software routines.
The researchers have also found that, because it can perform basic computation, the QMD can be used to aggregate data from multiple cores – expediting some basic computational functions by as much as 15 percent.
“We are now looking at developing other on-chip devices that could accelerate more multi-core computations,” Solihin says.
The paper, “CAF: Core to Core Communication Acceleration Framework,” will be presented at the 25th Annual Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques, being held Sept. 11 to 15 in Haifa, Israel. Lead author of the paper is Yipeng Wang, a former Ph.D. student at NC State. The paper was co-authored by Ren Wang, Andrew Herdrich and James Tsai of Intel Corporation.
Suggested Items
Siemens Delivers New Solido IP Validation Suite
05/07/2024 | SiemensSiemens Digital Industries Software introduced Solido™ IP Validation Suite software, a comprehensive, automated signoff solution for quality assurance across all design intellectual property (IP) types, including standard cells, memories and IP blocks.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Kendall Flies in AI-Piloted X-62A VISTA
05/06/2024 | Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin Skunk Works joined the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and other government and industry partners in hosting U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall to fly in the X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA), a one-of-a-kind aircraft modified to test artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy capabilities.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Software Solutions for Circuit Board Challenges
05/03/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPONolan Johnson speaks with Will Webb from Aster Technologies about their software solutions for design teams, manufacturing, test engineers, and process engineers. Aster's software addresses the increasing complexities of circuit boards and the need for alternative testing methods.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: My Role as a Technology Solutions Director
05/02/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOPeter Tranitz, senior director of technology solutions at IPC, shares insights into his role as the design initiative lead. He details his advocacy work, industry support, and the responsibilities of the design initiative committee. The conversation also covers the revamping of standards, the IPC Design Competition, and the implementation of design rules in software tools.
Boeing Validates Software for Future Manned Unmanned Refueling Missions
05/02/2024 | BoeingBoeing has advanced its manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) technology using a digital F/A-18 Super Hornet and MQ-25 Stingray. The testing shows the software is maturing for future U.S. Navy use and a potential to deploy the teaming capability on both F/A-18 Block II and III Super Hornets.