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Jan 23 (Thu) @ 10:00am: “Architecting the Full Stack: Programming Systems for Sparse Accelerators,” Olivia Hsu, Stanford University

Date and Time
photo of hsu

Location: Engineering Science Building (ESB), Room 2001

Abstract

Given the plateau in technology scaling combined with a continual need for performance, modern hardware development has focused on domain-specific accelerator design. However, domain-specific programming systems for these accelerators require extreme engineering effort and their complexity has largely caused them to lag behind. Fundamentally, the widespread usability, proliferation, and democratization of domain-specific accelerators hinge on their programming systems, especially when targeting new domains. 

This talk presents research on accelerator programming systems for the emerging domain of applications with sparse computation. The first system, called the Sparse Abstract Machine (SAM), introduces the idea of a unified abstract machine model and compiler abstraction for sparse dataflow accelerators. SAM defines a novel streaming representation and abstract dataflow interfaces that serve as an abstraction to decouple sparse accelerator implementations from their programs, similar to a stable ISA for dataflow. The second system, Mosaic, introduces solutions for modular and portable compilation across different sparse accelerators and high-performance systems. These systems are a first step towards heterogeneous hardware acceleration for all. I will conclude by discussing next steps to reach this goal, which include programming systems for accelerators in other domains and interoperation between accelerators across domains.

Bio

Olivia Hsu is a Computer Science PhD student at Stanford University, advised by Professors Kunle Olukotun and Fredrik Kjolstad. She aims to make performant, domain-specific hardware and software easy to use. Her broad research interests include computer architecture, computer and programming systems, compilers, programming languages, and digital circuits/VLSI. Olivia is a 2024 Rising Star in EECS and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and her research won a distinguished paper award at PLDI 2023. To learn more about her work, please visit her website at https://cs.stanford.edu/~owhsu.

Hosted by: ECE Department

Submitted by: Alexa Pazell <apazell@ece.ucsb.edu>