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Invitation to: MCC 2009, Second Swedish Workshop on Multi-Core Computing in Uppsala November 26-27, 2009

Uppsala Programming for Multicore Architectures Research Center (UPMARC)

In order to increase performance and save energy, most future processor chips will contain many processors, so called cores, that work in parallel. As a consequence, almost all software must exploit parallelism, UPMARC addresses the grand challenge of supplying techniques and tools to support software development for multicore platforms, by

• developing principles for algorithm construction in key application areas, considering the new trade-offs for multicores in comparison with previous multi-computers,
• developing techniques for making the most efficient use of system resources, including processor cores, memory units, communication bandwidth, in order to meet requirements of performance and predictability,
• developing programming language constructions and paradigms, that allow the software developer to express the potential parallelism of an algorithm, at the same time as shielding her from the added complexity of concurrency,
• developing techniques for analyzing vital correctness properties, using formal verification, static analysis, and testing.

The UPMARC research center received on June 19, 2008 a Linnaeus grant for the period 2008-2017 by the Swedish Research Council.

UPMARC brings together research groups with internationally leading expertise in complementary areas crucial for addressing these challenges: computer architecture, computer networks, parallel scientific computing, programming language technology, real-time and embedded systems, algorithmic program verification and testing and model generation, and modeling of concurrent computation.

UPMARC VISION

The important performance metrics of software for future multicore platforms are delivered computations per programmer hour and per watt, rather than CPU-cycles per second. Software production must be performed at a level of abstraction much closer to the application than to the hardware platform; it will be supported by powerful automated tools that bridge the gap between application and platform. Sweden is well-positioned to have a leading role in producing such tools.

UPMARC MISSION

UPMARC will produce research result, from which we can build tools that enable cost-efficient development of reliable and efficient multicore software by the large community of software producers.

Researchers

Parosh Abdulla, David Black-Schaffer, Per Gunningberg, Erik Hagersten, Sverker Holmgren, Bengt Jonsson, Elisabeth Larsson, Joachim Parrow, Konstantinos Sagonas, Björn Victor and Wang Yi.