The Dark Silicon Problem in Multi-Core Systems -- Invasive Computing as a Solution

  • Venue:

    Thematic Session at HiPEAC Computer Systems Week 2014

  • Date:

    May 13, 2014

  • Speaker:

    Jörg Henkel

  • Abstract: As multi-core systems grow more and more complex and at the same time applications’ behavior is less predictable, the so called Dark Silicon problem becomes a severe issue: since Dennard Scaling cannot be sustained any longer, the power density of on-chip multi-core systems reaches levels where not all cores can run at full speed at the same time. Hence, some cores need to stay “dark” in order meet the thermal design power constraint. Since “dark” cores represent an inefficient way of operating a multi-core system and even question further scaling, sophisticated means for resource management are demanded. The talk gives an introduction to Invasive Computing, a highly adaptive resource-aware computing paradigm. It is shown that adaptive resource management can indeed alleviate the Dark Silicon problem, allowing operating more cores at a higher speed as to what the thermal design power constraint would allow. The applied resource management techniques are presented and discussed. The talk concludes with some visions on the Dark Silicon problem.
  • Place:Barcelona, Spain
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