Languages must expose memory heterogeneity

Xiaochen Guo; Aviral Shrivastava; Michael Spear; Gang Tan

doi:10.1145/2989081.2989122

Languages must expose memory heterogeneity

Xiaochen Guo, Aviral Shrivastava, Michael Spear, Gang Tan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The last decade has seen an explosion in new and innovative memory technologies. While certain technologies, like transactional memory, have seen adoption at the language level, others, such as sandboxed memory, scratchpad memory, and persistent memory, have not received any systematic programming language support. This is true even though the underlying compiler-level mechanisms for these mechanisms are similar. In this paper, we argue that programming languages must be enhanced to expose heterogeneous memory technologies to programmers, so that they can enjoy the benefits of those technologies and be able to reason about programs that use the advanced features of novel memory technologies. We sketch a language design that allows programmers to specify memory requirements and behaviors, for both data and code. We further describe how a compiler can support such a language and suggest hardware improvements that can improve efficiencies of heterogeneous memories.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	MEMSYS 2016 - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Memory Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	251-256
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450343053
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2989081.2989122
State	Published - Oct 3 2016
Event	2nd International Symposium on Memory Systems, MEMSYS 2016 - Washington, United States Duration: Oct 3 2016 → Oct 6 2016

Publication series

Name	ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Volume	03-06-October-2016

Other

Other	2nd International Symposium on Memory Systems, MEMSYS 2016
Country/Territory	United States
City	Washington
Period	10/3/16 → 10/6/16

Keywords

Concurrency
Nonvolatile memory
Sandboxing
Scratchpad memory
Security
Transactional memory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Human-Computer Interaction
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Computer Networks and Communications

Access to Document

10.1145/2989081.2989122

Cite this

Languages must expose memory heterogeneity. / Guo, Xiaochen; Shrivastava, Aviral; Spear, Michael et al.
MEMSYS 2016 - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Memory Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2016. p. 251-256 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 03-06-October-2016).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Guo, X, Shrivastava, A, Spear, M & Tan, G 2016, Languages must expose memory heterogeneity. in MEMSYS 2016 - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Memory Systems. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, vol. 03-06-October-2016, Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 251-256, 2nd International Symposium on Memory Systems, MEMSYS 2016, Washington, United States, 10/3/16. https://doi.org/10.1145/2989081.2989122

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abstract = "The last decade has seen an explosion in new and innovative memory technologies. While certain technologies, like transactional memory, have seen adoption at the language level, others, such as sandboxed memory, scratchpad memory, and persistent memory, have not received any systematic programming language support. This is true even though the underlying compiler-level mechanisms for these mechanisms are similar. In this paper, we argue that programming languages must be enhanced to expose heterogeneous memory technologies to programmers, so that they can enjoy the benefits of those technologies and be able to reason about programs that use the advanced features of novel memory technologies. We sketch a language design that allows programmers to specify memory requirements and behaviors, for both data and code. We further describe how a compiler can support such a language and suggest hardware improvements that can improve efficiencies of heterogeneous memories.",

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N2 - The last decade has seen an explosion in new and innovative memory technologies. While certain technologies, like transactional memory, have seen adoption at the language level, others, such as sandboxed memory, scratchpad memory, and persistent memory, have not received any systematic programming language support. This is true even though the underlying compiler-level mechanisms for these mechanisms are similar. In this paper, we argue that programming languages must be enhanced to expose heterogeneous memory technologies to programmers, so that they can enjoy the benefits of those technologies and be able to reason about programs that use the advanced features of novel memory technologies. We sketch a language design that allows programmers to specify memory requirements and behaviors, for both data and code. We further describe how a compiler can support such a language and suggest hardware improvements that can improve efficiencies of heterogeneous memories.

AB - The last decade has seen an explosion in new and innovative memory technologies. While certain technologies, like transactional memory, have seen adoption at the language level, others, such as sandboxed memory, scratchpad memory, and persistent memory, have not received any systematic programming language support. This is true even though the underlying compiler-level mechanisms for these mechanisms are similar. In this paper, we argue that programming languages must be enhanced to expose heterogeneous memory technologies to programmers, so that they can enjoy the benefits of those technologies and be able to reason about programs that use the advanced features of novel memory technologies. We sketch a language design that allows programmers to specify memory requirements and behaviors, for both data and code. We further describe how a compiler can support such a language and suggest hardware improvements that can improve efficiencies of heterogeneous memories.

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KW - Security

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Languages must expose memory heterogeneity

Abstract

Publication series

Other

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Cite this