Hybrid-core computing is the technique of extending a commodity
instruction set architecture
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ' ...
(e.g.
x86
x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...
) with application-specific instructions to accelerate application performance. It is a form of
heterogeneous computing wherein asymmetric computational units coexist with a "commodity" processor.
Hybrid-core processing differs from general heterogeneous computing in that the computational units share a common logical address space, and an executable is composed of a single instruction stream—in essence a contemporary
coprocessor
A coprocessor is a computer processor used to supplement the functions of the primary processor (the CPU). Operations performed by the coprocessor may be floating-point arithmetic, graphics, signal processing, string processing, cryptography o ...
. The instruction set of a hybrid-core computing system contains instructions that can be dispatched either to the host instruction set or to the application-specific hardware.
Typically, hybrid-core computing is best deployed where the predominance of computational cycles are spent in a few identifiable kernels, as is often seen in
high-performance computing
High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems.
Overview
HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into a mult ...
applications. Acceleration is especially pronounced when the kernel's logic maps poorly to a sequence of commodity processor instructions, and/or maps well to the application-specific hardware.
Hybrid-core computing is used to accelerate applications beyond what is currently physically possible with off-the-shelf processors, or to lower power & cooling costs in a data center by reducing computational footprint. (i.e., to circumvent obstacles such as the power/density challenges faced with today's commodity processors).
["New Microarchitecture Challenges in the Coming Generations of CMOS Process Technologies," Fred Pollack, Director of Microprocessor Research Labs http://research.ac.upc.edu/HPCseminar/SEM9900/Pollack1.pdf]
References
Computer architecture
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