skip to main content
keynote

Heterogeneous computing: what does it mean for compiler research?

Published:06 February 2014Publication History
Skip Abstract Section

Abstract

The current trend in computer architecture is to increase the number of cores, to create specialized types of cores within a single machine, and to network such machines together in very fluid web/cloud computing arrangements. Compilers have traditionally focused on optimizations to code that improve performance, but is that the right target to speed up real applications? Consider loading a web page (like starting GMAIL) the page is transferred to the client, any JavaScript is compiled, the JavaScript executes, and the page gets displayed. The classic compiler model (which was first developed in the late 50's) was a great fit for single core machines but has fallen behind architecture, and language. For example how do you compile a single program for a machine that has both a CPU and a graphics coprocessor (a GPU) with a very different programming and memory model? Together with the changes in architecture there have been changes in programming languages. Dynamic languages are used more, static languages are used less. How does this effect compiler research? In this talk, I'll review a number of traditional compiler research challenges that have (or will) become burning issues and will describe some new problems areas that were not considered in the past. For example language specifica-tions are large complex technical documents that are difficult for non-experts to follow. Application programmers are often not willing to read these documents; can a compiler bridge the gap?

Index Terms

  1. Heterogeneous computing: what does it mean for compiler research?

        Recommendations

        Comments

        Login options

        Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

        Sign in

        Full Access

        • Published in

          cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices
          ACM SIGPLAN Notices  Volume 49, Issue 8
          PPoPP '14
          August 2014
          390 pages
          ISSN:0362-1340
          EISSN:1558-1160
          DOI:10.1145/2692916
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            PPoPP '14: Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Principles and practice of parallel programming
            February 2014
            412 pages
            ISBN:9781450326568
            DOI:10.1145/2555243

          Copyright © 2014 Owner/Author

          Publisher

          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 6 February 2014

          Check for updates

          Qualifiers

          • keynote

        PDF Format

        View or Download as a PDF file.

        PDF

        eReader

        View online with eReader.

        eReader
        About Cookies On This Site

        We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

        Learn more

        Got it!