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A survey on hardware‐aware and heterogeneous computing on multicore processors and accelerators
Author(s) -
Buchty Rainer,
Heuveline Vincent,
Karl Wolfgang,
Weiss JanPhilipp
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
concurrency and computation: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.309
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1532-0634
pISSN - 1532-0626
DOI - 10.1002/cpe.1904
Subject(s) - computer science , multi core processor , supercomputer , computer architecture , architecture , software , symmetric multiprocessor system , field (mathematics) , distributed computing , parallel computing , operating system , art , mathematics , pure mathematics , visual arts
SUMMARY In the last few years, the landscape of parallel computing has been subject to profound and highly dynamic changes. The paradigm shift towards multicore and manycore technologies coupled with accelerators in a heterogeneous environment is offering a great potential of computing power for scientific and industrial applications. However, for one to take full advantage of these new technologies, holistic approaches coupling the expertise ranging from hardware architecture and software design to numerical algorithms are a pressing necessity. Parallel computing is no longer limited to supercomputers and is now much more diversified – with a multitude of technologies, architectures, and programming approaches leading to increased complexity for developers and engineers. In this work, we give – from the perspective of numerical simulation and applications – an overview of existing and emerging multicore and manycore technologies as well as accelerator concepts. We emphasize the challenges associated with high‐performance heterogeneous computing and discuss the interfaces needed to fill the gap between the hardware architecture and the implementation of efficient numerical algorithms. By means of this short survey – which stresses the necessity of hardware‐aware computing – we aim at giving assistance to users in scientific computing entering this fascinating field and help understanding associated issues and capabilities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.