Abstract
The end of Moore's Law is a cliche that none the less is a hard barrier to future scaling of high performance computing systems. A factor of about 4x in device density is all that is left of this form of improved throughput with a 5x gain required just to get to the milestone of exascale. The remaining sources of performance improvement are better delivered efficiency of more than 10x and alternative architectures to make better use of chip real estate. This paper will discuss the set of principles guiding a potential future of non-von Neumann architectures as adopted by the experimental class of Continuum Computer Architecture (CCA). It is being explored by the Semantic Memory Architecture Research Team (SMART) at Indiana University. CCA comprises a homogeneous aggregation of cellular components (function cells) which are orders of magnitude smaller than lightweight cores and individually is unable to accomplish a computation but in combination can do so with extreme cost efficiency and unprecedented scalability. It will be seen that a path exists based on such unconventional methods like neuromorphic computing or dataflow that not only will meet the likely exascale milestone in the same time with much better power, cost, and size but also will set a new performance trajectory leading to Zetaflops capability before 2030.
Highlights
The fastest computer in the world measured by the HPL or Linpack benchmark [5] is the Summit [19], at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the United States
The Continuum Computer architecture is a vast array of simple logic cells that are much smaller than todays lightweight cores (e.g., ARM [3])
Many advantages are achieved through the innovative non-von Neumann architecture described above with additional ones not yet discussed
Summary
The fastest computer in the world measured by the HPL or Linpack benchmark [5] is the Summit [19], at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the United States. Following these are 498 HPC systems with the 500th still measured in the hundreds of Teraflops These unprecedented advances reflect an exponential progress over a period of more than two dozen years with a total growth of more than a factor of a million over that period and of more than ten trillion since the beginning of the age of the modern digital electronic stored program computer more than 70 years ago. Much of this is a combination of von Neumann architecture [17] derivatives and the sustained improvement of device components often regarded as Moore’s Law [16]. Analysis suggests more than three orders of magnitude peak performance in less than a decade
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