Beyond Exascale: Emerging Devices and Architectures for Computing
SessionPlenary Invited Talks - Klawe and Theis
Session ChairWilliam D. Gropp
Presenter
Event Type
Invited Talk
Introductory
TimeThursday, November 17th9:15am - 10am
LocationBallroom-EFGHIJ
DescriptionThe continuing evolution of silicon CMOS technology is clearly approaching some important physical limits. Since roughly 2003, the inability to reduce supply voltages according to constant-field scaling rules, combined with economic constraints on areal power density and total power, has forced designers to limit clock frequencies even as devices have continued to shrink. Still, there is a plausible path to exascale, based on the continued evolution of silicon device technology, silicon photonics, 3D integration, and more. The immediate challenge is to execute. However, longer term research exploring entirely new devices and architectures is essential if we want to take high performance computing well beyond exascale. Recent years have brought a large increase in research funding and interest in new device concepts. Some of the devices explored to date, such as tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs) based on III-V semiconductors, promise to open a new low-power design space which is inaccessible to conventional FETs. Nanomagnetic devices may allow memory and logic functions to be combined in novel ways. And newer, perhaps more promising device concepts continue to emerge. At the same time, research in new architectures has also grown. Indeed, at the leading edge, researchers are beginning to focus on co-optimization of new devices and new architectures. Despite the growing research investment, the landscape of promising research opportunities outside the “FET devices and circuits box” is still largely unexplored.
Presenter
