Relaxed correctness criteria for modern multi-core architectures. This project seeks to lay groundwork for fully exploiting the potential of multicore computers. Multicore computers have become ubiquitous over the last decade, now being standard in everything from laptops to mobile phones. Their benefits are clear – better performance leading to more sophisticated applications. Key to ensuring those benefits are complex, and often subtle, algorithms that exploit the parallelism that multicore co ....Relaxed correctness criteria for modern multi-core architectures. This project seeks to lay groundwork for fully exploiting the potential of multicore computers. Multicore computers have become ubiquitous over the last decade, now being standard in everything from laptops to mobile phones. Their benefits are clear – better performance leading to more sophisticated applications. Key to ensuring those benefits are complex, and often subtle, algorithms that exploit the parallelism that multicore computers offer. This project aims to lay foundations for extending those benefits to applications where high reliability is a concern. It plans to do so by developing theoretical results about the correctness of algorithms on standard multicore computers, and practical tools and techniques to help programmers of multicore computers to better understand the behaviour of their code.Read moreRead less
Symbolic synthesis of knowledge-based program implementations. Systems with concurrent streams of activity are ubiquitous in computer hardware and software designs, but are conceptually complex, and fraught with faults and inefficiency. The project aims to address these difficulties by automating aspects of system design, to relieve the designer of the need to reason about complex patterns of information flow.
Tuning parallel applications on software-defined supercomputers. Supercomputers are used by many Australian industries and laboratories to make better products and perform critical predictions, and it is essential that codes operate efficiently. This project aims to assist programmers in identifying performance bottlenecks in their code quickly and easily. The project expects to supersede the current methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, by developing innovative software tools and ....Tuning parallel applications on software-defined supercomputers. Supercomputers are used by many Australian industries and laboratories to make better products and perform critical predictions, and it is essential that codes operate efficiently. This project aims to assist programmers in identifying performance bottlenecks in their code quickly and easily. The project expects to supersede the current methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, by developing innovative software tools and techniques. The expected outcomes include novel software, verified by industry partners in real world case studies, ranging from life sciences to hypersonic transport. This should provide significant benefits, including the capacity for Australian industries to access world-class supercomputing technology.Read moreRead less
Understanding concurrent programs using rely-guarantee thinking. Multi-core processors are standard in computers and devices (e.g. smart phones) but much of the software available for these machines is either unreliable or does not exploit the available hardware parallelism. This project will devise techniques for designing concurrent software that exploits these platforms while delivering dependable operation.
Design and verification of correct, efficient and secure concurrent systems. This project aims to provide methods for the design and verification of correct, secure and efficient concurrent software that are scalable and mechanised. Computers with multiple processors are now the norm and are used in a wide range of safety, security and mission critical software applications such as transport, health and infrastructure. These multi-core architectures have the potential to lead to important effici ....Design and verification of correct, efficient and secure concurrent systems. This project aims to provide methods for the design and verification of correct, secure and efficient concurrent software that are scalable and mechanised. Computers with multiple processors are now the norm and are used in a wide range of safety, security and mission critical software applications such as transport, health and infrastructure. These multi-core architectures have the potential to lead to important efficiency gains, but can introduce complex and error-prone behaviours that cannot be managed using traditional software development approaches. This project will produce better, scalable and mechanised methods for the design and verification of such software which is expected to reduce the prevalence of failures in efficient, modern software.Read moreRead less
Software debuggers for next generation heterogeneous supercomputers. Supercomputing underpins a wide range of areas of importance to the Australian economy; mining, agriculture, engineering and medical research to name a few. It is of critical importance that software solutions in these areas behave correctly. This project will develop software tools and techniques to help locate errors in such applications.
Automatic Energy Tuning of Parallel Applications on a Hybrid Supercomputer. Energy efficiency is a critical challenge in building next-generation supercomputers. This project aims to provide a new energy-tuning tool integrated with Cray’s systems, to simplify the process of tuning hybrid applications and managing efficient energy use. Although hardware components play a dominant role in saving energy, heterogeneous systems offer the opportunity to exploit the extremely high concurrency with mode ....Automatic Energy Tuning of Parallel Applications on a Hybrid Supercomputer. Energy efficiency is a critical challenge in building next-generation supercomputers. This project aims to provide a new energy-tuning tool integrated with Cray’s systems, to simplify the process of tuning hybrid applications and managing efficient energy use. Although hardware components play a dominant role in saving energy, heterogeneous systems offer the opportunity to exploit the extremely high concurrency with modest energy consumption using accelerators. Accordingly, the future of parallel computing must consider the trade-off between obtaining the optimal performance and the allowed power budget. The project plans to design parallel programming environments that support energy analysis and tuning.Read moreRead less