CI-ADDO-NEW: Manifold - A Scalable Simulation Infrastructure for Future Many Core Systems

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

As the computing industry accelerates into the many core era, it is confronted with the need for reliable and accurate simulation, modeling and performance prediction tools for future systems comprised of tens to hundreds of cores per die. Due to different intellectual histories and goals, the integration of mature existing point tools into accurate models of even small 4-8 core systems has proven to be time consuming, error prone, and brittle, with the models themselves taking hours to days for a single simulation run on state-of-the art workstations. Concurrently, these effects make re-use across groups and institutions difficult and have begun to severely inhibit research and teaching progress in many core architectures. The proposed program of work will create an open source many core simulation and modeling infrastructure. This infrastructure, Manifold, will adapt techniques for concurrent simulation to enable existing highly parallel architectures to be harnessed to model future designs. Manifold will enable users to incorporate existing simulation tools when they exist, as well as provide models for key many core components and phenomena, for example interconnection networks. The goal is a software infrastructure that is i) easily accessible to all academic and research communities, ii) runs on commodity clusters, iii) runs on many core laptops for classroom use, and iv) reduces barriers to entry in catalyzing new efforts. Central to Manifolds mission is the development of curricular material for computer architecture modeling and simulation including new courses, course modules, training materials, and significant evangelization.