CHREC Overview

1
CHREC Overview

• Alan D. George, Ph.D.
• Director, NSF Center for High-Performance
• Reconfigurable Computing (CHREC)

2
What is CHREC?

• NSF Center for High-Performance
• Reconfigurable Computing (CHREC)
• Pronounced shreck ?
• Under development since Q4 of 2004
• Lead institution grant by NSF to Florida awarded
  on 09/05/06
• Partner institution grant by NSF to GWU awarded
  on 12/04/06
• Partner institution grants tentatively projected
  for VT and BYU in 2007
• Under auspices of I/UCRC Program at NSF
• Industry/University Cooperative Research Center
• CHREC supported by CISE Engineering
  Directorates _at_ NSF
• CHREC is both a Center and a Research Consortium
• University groups form the research base
  (faculty, students)
• Industry and government organizations are
  research partners, sponsors, collaborators, and
  technology-transfer recipients

3
Objectives for CHREC

• Establish first multidisciplinary NSF research
  center in reconfigurable high-performance
  computing
• Basis for long-term partnership and collaboration
  amongst industry, academe, and government a
  research consortium
• RC from supercomputing to high-performance
  embedded systems
• Directly support research needs of our Center
  members
• Highly cost-effective manner with pooled,
  leveraged resources and maximized synergy
• Enhance educational experience for a diverse set
  of high-quality graduate and undergraduate
  students
• Ideal recruits after graduation for our Center
  members
• Advance knowledge and technologies in this field
• Commercial relevance ensured with rapid
  technology transfer

4
Academic Team
HPC High-Performance Computing HPEC
High-Performance Embedded Computing

• University of Florida (lead institution)
• Base of research expertise in HPC, HPEC, RC
• Emphasis on RC for HPC and HPEC
• George Washington University (partner
  institution)
• Base of research expertise in HPC and RC
• Emphasis on RC for HPC w/ scientific commercial
  systems
• Virginia Tech (pending partner institution)
• Planning grant proposal submitted Sep 06
• Emphasis on human-computer interaction for RC,
  HPC
• Brigham Young University (pending partner
  institution)
• Planning grant proposal submitted Sep 06
• Emphasis on RC for HPEC, focus on device-level
  issues

5
Center Management Structure
BYU B. Nelson VT S. Bohner
6
CHREC Faculty

• University of Florida
• Dr. Alan D. George, Professor of ECE UF Site
  Director
• Dr. Herman Lam, Associate Professor of ECE
• Dr. K. Clint Slatton, Assistant Professor of ECE
  and CCE
• Dr. Dapeng Oliver Wu, Assistant Professor of ECE
• George Washington University
• Dr. Tarek El-Ghazawi, Professor of ECE GWU Site
  Director
• Dr. Ivan Gonzalez, Research Scientist in ECE
• Dr. Mohamed Taher, Research Scientist in ECE
• Virginia Tech
• Dr. Shawn A. Bohner, Associate Professor of CS
  VT Site Director
• Dr. Peter Athanas, Professor of ECE
• Dr. Wu-Chun Feng, Associate Professor of CS and
  ECE
• Dr. Francis K.H. Quek, Professor of CS
• Brigham Young University
• Dr. Brent E. Nelson, Professor of ECE BYU Site
  Director
• Dr. Michael J. Wirthlin, Associate Professor of
  ECE
• Dr. Brad L. Hutchings, Professor of ECE

7
Membership Fee Structure

• NSF provides initial funds for CHREC via I/UCRC
  Center grants
• Grant to each participating university (UF, GWU,
  later VT and BYU)
• Industry and govt. partners support CHREC through
  memberships
• NOTE Each membership is associated with ONE
  university
• Partners may hold multiple memberships (and thus
  support multiple projects/students) at one or
  multiple participating universities (e.g. NSA)
• Full Membership fee is 35K in cash per year
• 35K unit? Approx. cost of graduate student for
  one year
• Stipend, tuition, and related expenses (not
  including IDC)
• Fee represents tiny fraction of size benefits
  of Center
• All tolled, CHREC budget projected at 1.5-2M in
  Y1 (UFGW)
• Equivalent to far higher if had been founded in
  govt. or industry (10M)
• Each university supports various costs of its
  CHREC operations
• 25 matching of industry membership contributions
• Indirect Costs waived on membership fees (1.5
  multiplier)
• Matching on administrative personnel costs

More bang for your buck!
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Benefits of Center Membership

• Research and collaboration
• Selection of project topics that your membership
  resources support
• Direct influence over cutting-edge research of
  prime interest
• Review of results on semiannual formal basis
  continual informal basis
• Rapid transfer of results, before publication
  any IP from all projects
• Leveraging and synergy
• Highly leveraged and synergistic pool
• Cost-effective RD in todays budget-tight
  environment
• Multi-member collaboration
• Many benefits between members
• e.g. new industrial partnerships and teaming
  opportunities
• Personnel
• Access to strong cadre of faculty, students,
  post-docs
• Recruitment
• Strong pool of students with experience on
  industry govt. issues
• Facilities
• Access to university research labs with
  world-class facilities

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General Policies for CHREC

• We follow the I/UCRC Standard Agreement
• As defined by NSF
• CHREC publication-delay policy
• Results from funded projects shared with members
  30 days prior to publication
• Any industry member may delay publication for up
  to 90 days for IP issues
• Industrial Advisory Board (IAB)
• One representative for each full member in CHREC
• Board members elect IAB chair and vice-chair on
  annual basis
• Y1 Chair Alan Hunsberger (NSA), Vice-Chair Nick
  Papageorgis (Smiths Aerospace)
• Number of votes commensurate with number of
  memberships
• On Center policies 1 vote per full membership
• On Center projects 35 votes per full membership
  for flexibility (support several projects)
• Focus in Y1 on full memberships, but other
  options possible in future
• e.g. Associate Member equipment
• Capital equipment donation as option for extended
  rights beyond paid full membership
• e.g. Associate Member small business
• Reduced membership fee with commensurately
  reduced IP and voting rights
• All membership options require approval by IAB

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Founding Members in CHREC

• AFRL Munitions Dir.
• ARSC
• Honeywell
• HP
• IBM Research
• Intel
• Linux Networx
• NASA Goddard
• NASA Langley
• NASA Marshall

• National Security Agency
• NCI/SAIC
• Oak Ridge National Lab
• Office of Naval Research
• Raytheon
• Rockwell Collins
• Sandia National Labs
• SGI
• Smiths Aerospace

ORANGE Member with UF, BLUE Member with GWU,
GREEN Member with both
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What is a Reconfigurable Computer?

• System capable of changing hardware structure to
  address application demands
• Static or dynamic reconfiguration
• Reconfigurable computing, configurable computing,
  custom computing, adaptive computing, etc.
• Typically a mix of conventional and
  reconfigurable processing technologies
  (control-flow, data-flow)
• Enabling technology?
• Field-programmable hardware (e.g. FPGAs)
• Applications?
• Broad range satellites to supercomputers!
• Faster, smaller, cheaper, less power heat, more
  versatile

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When and where do we need RC?

• When do we need RC?
• When performance versatility are critical
• Hardware gates targeted to application-specific
  requirements
• System mission or applications change over time
• When the environment is extremely restrictive
• Limited power, weight, area, volume, etc.
• Limited communications bandwidth for work offload
• When autonomy and adaptivity are paramount
• Where do we need RC?
• In conventional HPC systems clusters where apps
  amenable
• Field-programmable hardware fits many demands
  (but certainly not all)
• High DOP, finer grain, direct dataflow mapping,
  bit manipulation, selectable precision, direct
  control over H/W (e.g. perf. vs. power)
• In space, air, sea, undersea, and ground systems
• Embedded deployable systems can reap many
  advantages w/ RC

13
Research Challenge Stack
Performance Prediction Performance Analysis Nume
rical Analysis Languages Compilers System Serv
ices Portable Libraries System Architectures De
vice Architectures

• Performance prediction
• When and where to exploit RC?
• Performance analysis
• How to optimize complex systems and apps?
• Numerical analysis
• Must we throw DP floats at every problem?
• Programming languages compilers
• How to express achieve multilevel parallelism?
• System services
• How to support variety of run-time needs?
• Portable core libraries
• Where cometh building blocks?
• System architectures
• How to scalably feed hungry FPGAs?
• Device architectures
• How will/must FPLD roadmaps track for HPC or HPEC?

14
Bridging the Gaps

• Vertical Gap
• Semantic gap between design levels
• Application design by scientists programmers
• Hardware design by electrical computer
  engineers
• We must bridge this gap to achieve full potential
• Better programming languages to express
  parallelism of multiple types and at multiple
  levels
• Better design tools, compilers, libraries,
  run-time systems
• Evolutionary and revolutionary steps
• Emphasis integrated SW/HW design for multilevel
  parallelism
• Horizontal Gap
• Architectures crossing the processing paradigms
• Cohesive, optimal collage of CPUs, FPGAs,
  interconnects, memory hierarchies,
  communications, storage, et al.
• Must we assume simple retrofit to conventional
  architecture?

15
Y1 Projects at UF GW
UF
GW
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CHREC OpenFPGA
Diagram c/o Dr. Eric Stahlberg _at_ OpenFPGA
17
Conclusions

• New NSF Center in reconfigurable computing
• Overarching theme
• CHREC forms basis for research consortium with
  partners from industry, academia, and government
• Focus upon basic applied research in RC for HPC
  and HPEC with major educational component
• Technical emphasis at outset is towards aerospace
  defense
• Building blocks, systems services, design
  automation, applications
• Opportunities for expansion and synergy in other
  app areas
• Current emphasis is preparation for kickoff in
  Dec. 06
• UF and GW are operational on Y1 projects
  beginning on 01/01/07
• VT and BYU are building their membership in prep
  for Site proposals to NSF
• We invite government industry groups to join
  CHREC consortium
• Leverage and build upon common interests and
  synergy in RC
• Pooled resources matched resources maximal
  ROI, minimal member fee