HPCwire: Lincoln Lab Releases PVTOL Multicore Software Architecture

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June 29, 2007

Lincoln Lab Releases PVTOL Multicore Software Architecture

Background

In 2006 multicore processing entered the mainstream. The DoD High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) community has been wrestling with the programming challenges presented by multicore computing for several years. The HPEC community got its first taste of multicore computing in 2001 via Bob Graybill's DARPA Polymorphous Computing Architecture (PCA) program. PCA allowed a number of teams to get hands on experience with the 16 core chip developed by the MIT RAW team (led by Prof. Anant Agarwal). Early experiences with this and other tiled processors clearly demonstrated the enormous performance/watt potential of multicore processors, as well as the large programming difficulties. In response, the HPEC Software Initiative (HPEC-SI) made a number of research investments to prepare the way for integrating multicore processors into the Vector, Signal and Image Processing Library (VSIPL) open software standard. These research projects included efforts to incorporate heterogeneous processors (led by Richard Linderman of AFRL and Miriam Leeser at Northeastern), GPUs (led by Dan Campbell of GTRI), and the development of Parallel VSIPL++ (led by CodeSourcery). In addition, MIT Lincoln Laboratory developed several multicore technologies in the context of grid computing. These included Hierarchical Arrays (led by Hahn Kim) and Automated Parallel Mapping (led by Nadya Bliss).

PVTOL Goals

This research has led to the development by Lincoln of the Parallel Vector Tile Optimizing Library (PVTOL). The PVTOL project (led by Jeremy Kepner) has two goals:

(1) Create a library that allows multicore processors to be quickly programmed for real signal processing applications.
(2) Develop prototype multicore VSIPL extensions for possible adoption by the VSIPL standards body.

PVTOL Capabilities

The first real PVTOL applications are expected to be running in late 2007 or early 2008 using the IBM Cell processor on Mercury Computer systems. Lincoln is making available the PVTOL architecture to the broader community to encourage the open discussion of the programming challenges and possible solutions presented by multicore processors. The main features of PVTOL are:

(1) Parallel VSIPL++ look and feel: scalable, portable, high performance.
(2) Hierarchical Arrays.
(3) Automated Parallel Mapping.
(4) Heterogeneous Processors Dispatch Mechanism.

This work was sponsored by the Department of Defense under Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a contract with the U.S. Air Force. Serving multiple sponsors, the Laboratory conducts advanced R&D for national defense, with particular emphasis on advanced electronics and transfers technology to both government and industry.

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Source: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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