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Title: Balance in machine architecture: Bandwidth on board and offboard, integer/control speed and flops versus memory

Abstract

The issues to be addressed here are those of ``balance`` in machine architecture. By this, we mean how much emphasis must be placed on various aspects of the system to maximize its usefulness for physics. There are three components that contribute to the utility of a system: How the machine can be used, how big a problem can be attacked, and what the effective capabilities (power) of the hardware are like. The effective power issue is a matter of evaluating the impact of design decisions trading off architectural features such as memory bandwidth and interprocessor communication capabilities. What is studied is the effect these machine parameters have on how quickly the system can solve desired problems. There is a reasonable method for studying this: One selects a few representative algorithms and computes the impact of changing memory bandwidths, and so forth. The only room for controversy here is in the selection of representative problems. The issue of how big a problem can be attacked boils down to a balance of memory size versus power. Although this is a balance issue it is very different than the effective power situation, because no firm answer can be given at this time. Themore » power to memory ratio is highly problem dependent, and optimizing it requires several pieces of physics input, including: how big a lattice is needed for interesting results; what sort of algorithms are best to use; and how many sweeps are needed to get valid results. We seem to be at the threshold of learning things about these issues, but for now, the memory size issue will necessarily be addressed in terms of best guesses, rules of thumb, and researchers` opinions.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab., Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
10153638
Report Number(s):
FNAL/C-92/125; CONF-9001172-1
ON: DE92016006
DOE Contract Number:  
AC02-76CH03000
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: Terraflop workshop,Tallahassee, FL (United States),Jan 1990; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1992
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE; BENCHMARKS; HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS; ALGORITHMS; MEMORY DEVICES; COMMUNICATIONS; MEMORY MANAGEMENT; 990200; 662000; MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

Fischler, M. Balance in machine architecture: Bandwidth on board and offboard, integer/control speed and flops versus memory. United States: N. p., 1992. Web.
Fischler, M. Balance in machine architecture: Bandwidth on board and offboard, integer/control speed and flops versus memory. United States.
Fischler, M. 1992. "Balance in machine architecture: Bandwidth on board and offboard, integer/control speed and flops versus memory". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10153638.
@article{osti_10153638,
title = {Balance in machine architecture: Bandwidth on board and offboard, integer/control speed and flops versus memory},
author = {Fischler, M},
abstractNote = {The issues to be addressed here are those of ``balance`` in machine architecture. By this, we mean how much emphasis must be placed on various aspects of the system to maximize its usefulness for physics. There are three components that contribute to the utility of a system: How the machine can be used, how big a problem can be attacked, and what the effective capabilities (power) of the hardware are like. The effective power issue is a matter of evaluating the impact of design decisions trading off architectural features such as memory bandwidth and interprocessor communication capabilities. What is studied is the effect these machine parameters have on how quickly the system can solve desired problems. There is a reasonable method for studying this: One selects a few representative algorithms and computes the impact of changing memory bandwidths, and so forth. The only room for controversy here is in the selection of representative problems. The issue of how big a problem can be attacked boils down to a balance of memory size versus power. Although this is a balance issue it is very different than the effective power situation, because no firm answer can be given at this time. The power to memory ratio is highly problem dependent, and optimizing it requires several pieces of physics input, including: how big a lattice is needed for interesting results; what sort of algorithms are best to use; and how many sweeps are needed to get valid results. We seem to be at the threshold of learning things about these issues, but for now, the memory size issue will necessarily be addressed in terms of best guesses, rules of thumb, and researchers` opinions.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10153638}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1992},
month = {Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1992}
}

Conference:
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