The accelerator wall: Limits of chip specialization

Adi Fuchs, David Wentzlaff

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Specializing chips using hardware accelerators has become the prime means to alleviate the gap between the growing computational demands and the stagnating transistor budgets caused by the slowdown of CMOS scaling. Much of the benefits of chip specialization stems from optimizing a computational problem within a given chip's transistor budget. Unfortunately, the stagnation of the number of transistors available on a chip will limit the accelerator design optimization space, leading to diminishing specialization returns, ultimately hitting an accelerator wall. In this work, we tackle the question of what are the limits of future accelerators and chip specialization? We do this by characterizing how current accelerators depend on CMOS scaling, based on a physical modeling tool that we constructed using datasheets of thousands of chips. We identify key concepts used in chip specialization, and explore case studies to understand how specialization has progressed over time in different applications and chip platforms (e.g., GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs)1. Utilizing these insights, we build a model which projects forward to see what future gains can and cannot be enabled from chip specialization. A quantitative analysis of specialization returns and technological boundaries is critical to help researchers understand the limits of accelerators and develop methods to surmount them.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 25th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture, HPCA 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1-14
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781728114446
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 26 2019
Event25th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture, HPCA 2019 - Washington, United States
Duration: Feb 16 2019Feb 20 2019

Publication series

NameProceedings - 25th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture, HPCA 2019

Conference

Conference25th IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture, HPCA 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityWashington
Period2/16/192/20/19

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Keywords

  • Accelerator Wall
  • CMOS Scaling
  • Moore's Law

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