Reliability and Security of Extreme Parallelism

As we approach the end of Moore's law, current processors are reaching their physical limits. The focus has now shifted to multicore processors and distributed computational systems. Multicore computers are now the de-facto for most PCs and the use of heterogeneous hardware such as graphics processing units are no longer limited to just the field of high-performance computing. With the increase in cores, the chance that a single unit might fail also increases. In addition, side-channel attacks have been performed to steal data using parallel processors. Hence, the added features of parallel computing also bring new avenues for unintended errors and malicious attacks. In this article, we provide a systematic overview of current reliability and security concerns in the context of extreme parallelism.

Automated summary

As Moore's law nears its end, processors are approaching their physical limits. The focus has shifted to multicore processors and distributed computational systems. However, along with the benefits of parallel computing, there are also concerns about reliability and security. This article provides a systematic overview of the current issues in extreme parallelism.