Programming Language Support for Emerging Memory Technologies

Abstract

Optimal placement and movement of data between storage, memory and processing components has been the main driver for higher performance and lower energy consumption of all software. Attaining (or even approaching) optimality requires an accurate model. A flat homogeneous address space abstraction (the von Neumann model), presented by hardware and by the hardware abstraction layers of the OS/runtime, is becoming harder and harder to maintain and is less and less accurate as a model. What new abstractions should compiler writers and programmers use instead? In the emerging landscape of new memory devices, with radically different processing elements in systems spanning from super-computers to IoT devices, how can we save users from being overwhelmed with the diversity and complexity of memory architectures? Conversely, how can we give programmers and compiler writers some idea of the memory architecture and some degree of control over data placement and movement?