Toward a self-aware system for exascale architectures

Abstract

High-performance systems are evolving to a point where performance is no longer the sole relevant criterion. The current execution and resource management paradigms are no longer sufficient to ensure correctness and performance. Power requirements are presently driving the co-design of HPC systems, which in turn sets the course for a radical change in how to express the need for scarcer and scarcer resources, as well as how to manage them. It is our opinion that systems will need to become more introspective and self-aware with respect to performance, energy, and resiliency. In this position paper, we explore the major hardware requirements we believe are central to enabling introspection and self-awareness, as well as the types of interfaces and information that will be needed for such runtime systems. We also discuss a research path toward a self-aware system for exascale architectures. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.