Telescoping Architectures: A Methodology for Evaluating Next-Generation Heterogeneous Computing

Architectural innovation has telescoped the HPC community from the commodity (Beowulf) cluster in a machine room, i.e., a multi-node system with Ethernet interconnect, to a commodity cluster on a chip, i.e., multicore CPU with an on-die interconnect. We project that this “telescoping architecture” will apply more broadly to heterogeneous computing, namely from heterogeneous clusters like Tianhe-2 in a machine room to on a chip. To that end, we present an experimental study that extends the notion of telescoping architectures to identify the ideal mixture of compute engines (CEs) and the number of such CEs on a chip to create a heterogeneous “cluster on a chip” (CoC). Specifically, we experiment with heterogeneous architectures that contain single or multiple instances of CPUs, GPUs, Intel MICs, and FPGAs to demonstrate their performance efficacy given continuing advances in hardware technology, software, tools, and run-time support. Index Terms—architecture; microprocessor design; heterogeneous computing; dwarfs; motifs; system on a chip;