Design inspired by mimicry octopus subversion of traditional computer infrastructure

Design inspired by mimicry octopus subversion of traditional computer infrastructure

Under the joint support of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai Municipal government, at the end of September, by the PLA Information Engineering University, China Electronics Technology Group 32nd Institute, Fudan, Chiao Tung and other more than 10 units of more than 500 researchers developed "new concept of high-performance computer architecture and System Research open" in Shanghai through acceptance The mimicry of computer technology, first proposed by Chinese scientists, becomes a reality. In the face of the new term "mimicry computer", many people feel strange and curious, what is it different from the traditional computer? The reporter visited several experts in the computer field to see the magic of mimicry technology.

Guest of the Year

Research Fellow, Snow Ming National Digital Exchange System Engineering Technology Center

Kuming, Deputy chief engineer, 32nd Institute of China Electronic Technology Group

Cao, expert of Microelectronics College of Fudan University

Efficiency rise hundred times energy reduced 90%

Despite the rapid development of computer technology, its structure still follows the Neumann structure introduced in 1949, including the calculator, controller, memory, input and other five parts, but this fixed mode also restricts the development of the computer. Shermine told reporters that the use of a single computational structure to handle all application problems in a high-performance computer operation based on traditional architectures is often less than 10% efficiency. The mimicry computer's design is inspired by the mimicry octopus, using a variable architecture. When encountering a problem, the solution structure suitable for a is adopted, and the B problem can be converted to a solution structure suitable for B. "Under the new system, the computer will become more intelligent, through the rational analysis, deployment of resources, its efficiency can be increased by more than 10 times times than the average computer or even a hundredfold." ”

Cao, an expert in project research, cited an example. His research team in Fudan University developed an "image recognition" application with the mimicry computer project, which is used to compare and detect video on the Internet to filter out illegal video. "Due to the large number of Internet video, in a group of 15 million video, 1 ordinary servers can be retrieved per second in the number of 15~30 frames, through the mimicry computer performance can be increased 80 times times." ”

Another big feature of mimicry computers is energy efficiency. Kuming told reporters that with the development of large data and cloud computing, the construction of the domestic data center expands rapidly and consumes a lot of energy. "At present, the energy consumption of all the data centers in China is already equivalent to the electricity consumption in Tianjin, which is a heavy burden." And the pseudo computer through the variable system and processing structure, power consumption is only 1/10 of the original. ”

Kuming introduced, Shanda also participated in the project's research work, one of its web site trial mimicry computer as a server, the original need for dozens of servers, now only a pseudo computer can be, not only a sharp reduction in power consumption, and economic benefits, saving the footprint.

"Pseudo security" lets hackers lose target

In general, the traditional computer has a relatively fixed pattern, the pedagogical side said that the use of Windows operating system or Oracle database, hackers can be targeted to study the virus, attack. But the mimicry computer system hardware and software is not fixed, can control the change artificially. Kuming to reporters, "There have been 5~6 changes, coupled with different time axes, can evolve a variety of forms, so that hackers ' lost the target," the difficulty of cracking greatly increased. ”

"Prism door" incident, let people worry about network security, calls for the use of domestic hardware and software sound. However, due to the gap between Chinese and foreign computer technology, it is unlikely to discard foreign chips, routers, operating systems and other devices in the short term. "By mimicry the computer, at least we can increase the security from the system," Kuming said. The same use of foreign equipment, but the use of variable form, the same Web services, can render a variety of solutions to enhance security. ”

The process of industrialization is arduous

Although the advantage of mimicry computer is outstanding, but at present it is mainly in the theoretical research stage, and the industrialization process is still "blocking and long". For ordinary users, the mimicry computer may take a long time to "fly into ordinary people's home."

"Mimicry computer in the future is mainly the direction of the super, IDC and so on, its efficient, energy-saving features can be fully played." Kuming said that in the course of the study, they used a pseudo computer for a large site to replace the traditional server to test, resulting in 1 of pseudo computers have done 60 server work. "In the course of the study, 32 in order to quickly realize the mimicry of computer industrialization, the use of pseudo-computer design concepts and cognitive decision-making technology, designed a high-density micro-server product line, has completed user testing, into the supply phase." Compared with traditional general-purpose servers, the volume and power consumption of high-density micro-servers are reduced by more than 4 times times. ”

However, there are also barriers to mimicry of computer technology. Experts said that the traditional computer in the hardware and software have formed a more complete system, computer-based operating systems, databases, software applications are relatively rich, but the mimicry computer just started, matching is too late to keep up. The previous experiment found that even in the face of a common website, the construction and maintenance of the process is also more complex, the adjustment is very troublesome. At the same time, the future industrialization of the results of transformation, its market acceptance needs to be slowly cultivated.