Press Release 037/2014

ALMA Facilitates Programming

First Demonstration of New Tool Chain for Embedded Multi-core Processors at the DATE 2014 Conference in Dresden
Under the ALMA EU project, researchers develop a new integrated tool chain for the simple programming of software for multi-core processors. The project is coordinated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). At the DATE 2014 conference taking place in Dresden until March 28, the consortium now demonstrates automatic parallelization of software with the ALMA tool chain at booth EP 6. The tool chain facilitates programming from a high abstraction level and is suited for various hardware architectures.

 

An increasing number of electronic products, such as personal com-puters, smartphones, and cameras, are equipped with multi-core pro-cessors. Several processor cores are integrated on one chip. As a result of this integration, space and energy needed are minimized and computing capacity is increased. However, the capacity also depends on how well the software is parallelized, i.e., how homogeneously calculations are distributed to processor cores. So far, programming of applications for embedded multi-core systems has been associated with a high time and cost expenditure. Highly specialized knowledge has been required, as the number of processor cores increases continuously and architectures become increasingly complex.

 

The ALMA consortium coordinated by Professor Jürgen Becker, Head of the Institute for Information Processing Technology (ITIV) of KIT, has now developed a tool chain that considerably facilitates the work of programmers. It hides the complexity of the hardware architecture and, at the same time, generates a parallel program code optimized for multi-core processors. For this purpose, it uses an abstract de-scription language (ADL) to define the target architecture. The tool chain implements algorithms for parallelization and optimization of a group of multi-core architectures. Among others, the ALMA consorti-um has developed ADL descriptions for the KAHRISMA reconfigura-ble multi-core architecture developed by KIT.

 

“At the DATE 2014 conference, we will demonstrate programming with the ALMA tool chain from the front-end software to a multi-core simu-lator,” explains computer scientist Timo Stripf of KIT’s ITIV. An appli-cation for image processing will be used as an example of a front-end software. The ALMA project concentrates on the areas of image processing / object recognition as well as mobile communication, but it is also relevant to many other applications. The new tool chain reduces both development time and costs.

 

ALMA (Greek for “jump”) stands for “ALgorithm Parallelization for Multi-core Architectures.” The project started in September 2011 and is scheduled for three years. ALMA is funded with about EUR 3.2 million by the EU under the 7th Framework Programme. Seven partners of research and industry cooperate in the consortium: Apart from the KIT, the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB) in Karlsruhe and Ett-lingen, the University of Rennes 1 (France), the University of Peloponnese and the Techno-logical Educational Institute of Western Greece (both Greece) as well as Recore Systems B.V. (the Netherlands) and Intracom Telecom (Greece) are involved in ALMA. The project strengthens the position of Europe on the worldwide market of tool chains for software devel-opment for multi-core systems.

 

The DATE (Design, Automation & Test in Europe) conference taking place in Dresden from March 24 to 28, 2014, is the largest conference for design automation of electronic systems worldwide.

 

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

or, 25.03.2014
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Margarete Lehné
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