Mobile heterogeneous computing, in the form of the multiprocessor system-on-chips (MPSoC) — composed of various processing elements such as general-purpose cores with differing characteristics (GPUs, DSPs, non-programmable accelerators, and reconfigurable computing) — are expected to dominate the current and the future mobile platform landscape. The heterogeneity enables a computational kernel with specific requirements to be paired with the processing element(s) ideally suited to perform that computation, leading to substantially improved performance and energy-efficiency. While heterogeneous computing is an attractive proposition in theory, considerable software support at all levels is essential to fully realize its promises. The system software needs to orchestrate the different on-chip compute resources in a synergistic manner with minimal engagement from the application developers. The current state-of-the-art is inadequate in the software dimension despite tremendous progress and success in designing heterogeneous MPSoCs for mobile devices.

This talk will put the spotlight on the software perspective of mobile heterogeneous computing, especially in the context of popular emerging applications, such as 3D gaming, multimedia processing and analytics. The talk will introduce the technology trends driving the mobile heterogeneous computing revolution, provide an overview of computationally and performance-divergent compute elements, and present efforts at compiler and runtime management layers to unleash its potential towards high-performance energy-efficient computing.

Tulika Mitra is Provost’s Chair Professor of Computer Science and Vice Provost (Academic Affairs) at National University of Singapore (NUS). Her research interests span various aspects of the design automation of embedded real-time systems, cyber-physical systems, and Internet of Things (IoT) with particular emphasis on low-power computing, heterogeneous computing, application-specific processors, and software timing analysis/optimizations. She has authored over 150 scientific publications in leading international journals and conferences and holds multiple US patents. Her research has been recognized by best paper awards and nominations in leading conferences. Prof. Mitra currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems and Associate Editor of IEEE Design & Test and IEEE Micro. She has served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Embedded Systems Letters and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems in the past. She has served in the organizing and program committees of several major conferences in embedded systems, real-time systems, and electronic design automation including General Chair of Embedded Systems Week (ESWEEK) 2020, Program Chair of ICCAD 2021, EMOSFT 2014, CASES 2018. She has been a Member of the ACM Publications Board co-chairing the New Publications Committee (2018-2020).