It’s been almost 5 years since the last post on the SIGARCH blog about gem5. In that post, we talked about improving community outreach, providing a simpler interface to get started with gem5, and adding support for full machine learning stacks. I’m excited to say that we accomplished these goals, and so much more over ..read more

It is with a heavy heart that we write to share the news that on June 17th 2024, we lost our beloved colleague, mentor, and friend Arvind. Arvind passed away at 77 years old, after an illness he was being treated for took a sudden turn for the worse.            Arvind was a pioneer in computer ..read more

ISCA 2024 that recently concluded in Buenos Aires was a historic event. For the first time in its 50+ years of existence, ISCA was organized in Latin America. The conference organizers, led by general chairs (GCs) Augusto Vega and Esteban Mocskos, worked diligently to support the functioning of the conference despite challenges in preparation, including the uncertain economic climate in Argentina, and put together a memorable conference. Historical Perspective ISCA 2024’s journey began ten years ago at ISCA 2014 with the GCs first bid to bring ISCA to Buenos Aires. Though the bid for ISCA 201 ..read more

ACM Transactions on Computer Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO) was established in 2003, with Dean Tullsen and Brad Calder as the Founding Co-Editors-in-Chief.  Over the past 20 years, the journal has served as a high-quality platform for rapid dissemination of research publications.  TACO is a Gold Open Access journal that focuses on hardware, software, and systems research spanning the fields of computer architecture and code optimization. While approximately 75% of our submissions are previously unpublished manuscripts, approximately 25% are extended versions of previously ..read more

Quantum hardware has made significant advances in the last few years, but finding compelling applications with practical quantum advantage has been challenging.  In today’s article, we argue that real applications will be a hybrid combination of quantum and classical computation, and that the quantum and classical algorithms for these computations need to be co-designed with each other.  Moreover, we explore the novel application space of finding biomarkers in multimodal cancer data, where even the classical algorithms are still under development.  We propose that quantum-class ..read more

“The theory behind open source is simple. In the case of an operating system, the source code is free. Anyone can improve it, change it, exploit it. But those improvements, changes, and exploitations have to be made freely available.” – Linus Torvalds The advent of open-source software has revolutionized the software industry. It has reduced engineering costs and sped up development cycles. This allows small teams of developers to quickly implement their ideas using open-source tools, packages, libraries, etc.  Inspired by the collaborative ethos of open-source software, agile and open-s ..read more

One of the most pressing challenges facing today’s digital society is how to curb the relentless increase in the energy consumption of computing. Without major action, such an increase is even likely to accelerate, as ubiquitous AI models are embedded in applications ranging from personalized content creation, extended reality, and automation and control. A recent New York Times article that may prove prescient points out how US electric utilities are being overwhelmed by the demand from data centers. The message for computer architecture and systems researchers is clear: here is an area wher ..read more

Robots: A Growing Force in Our World Robots are becoming increasingly integral in various sectors such as economy, healthcare, agriculture, and defense. With predictions of over 20 million robots in operation by 2030 and a burgeoning robotics market, their seamless integration into real-world settings is more crucial than ever. This integration requires robust autonomous capabilities and the ability to execute complex AI tasks in real-time. The Surprising Gap in Research Despite the escalating importance of robotics, there’s a noticeable disconnect between the robotics and computer architectu ..read more

Welcome to the ASPLOS 2024 trip report. This year, ASPLOS 2024 was held in sunny San Diego from April 27- May 1, 2024 and was the largest ASPLOS ever. With ~800 attendees across 21 countries, ASPLOS 2024 was nearly double the size of ASPLOS 2023. General Chairs Nael Abu-Ghazaleh and Rajiv Gupta worked tirelessly over the past year to accommodate the growing ASPLOS 2024, including renegotiating the venue contracts multiple times!  For the second year in a row, ASPLOS 2024 saw a 50% increase in number of submissions (~900), more than doubling the number of submissions for ASPLOS 2022. Prog ..read more

In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing and the demise of Dennard scaling is becoming increasingly apparent, the importance of Sustainable Computing has never been more critical. Global datacenter electricity consumption reached 460 TWh in 2022 (more than doubling since 2018) and is expected, as described in the 2024 IEA report,  to exceed 620 TWh in 2026. As computing systems continue to grow in complexity and power consumption, it is imperative that we prioritize the development of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions. Sustainable Computing ..read more