Collaborative computing for heterogeneous integrated systems

Computing systems today typically employ, in addition to powerful CPUs, various types of specialized devices such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Such heterogeneous systems are evolving towards tighter integration of CPUs and devices for improved performance and reduced energy consumption. Compared to traditional use of GPUs and FPGAs as offload accelerators, this tight integration enables close collaboration between processors and devices, which is important for better utilization of system resources and higher performance. Programming interfaces are also adapting rapidly to these tightly integrated heterogeneous platforms by introducing features such as shared virtual memory, memory coherence, and system-wide atomics, making collaborative computing even more practical. In this paper, we survey current integrated heterogeneous systems and corresponding collaboration techniques. We evaluate the impact of collaborative computing on two heterogeneous integrated systems, CPU-GPU and CPU-FPGA, using OpenCL. Finally, we discuss the limitation of OpenCL and envision what suitable programming languages for collaborative computing will look like.