The PACE Project
The PACE project is a multi-institutional research
project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). The PACE project is developing a new generation of compiler
tools and technology that are intended to provide portable performance across a
wide range of new and old systems.
The PACE tools will automate the process of reconfiguring a high-performance
compilation environment for new computer systems. The resulting toolset should reduce the time required to
produce high-quality compilers for new computer systems.
The PACE compilation environment will include tools
to measure the performance-relevant parameters of a new system and adjust
translation and optimization strategies to fit those parameters better. It will include tools to measure application properties and to adjust optimization
strategies to fit specific applications.
It will include performance-monitoring tools to help both the user and
the compiler understand the application’s runtime behavior. It will include a runtime
system to make that execution more efficient, through both novel mechanisms to
support parallel execution and runtime analysis and adaptation of the
application’s behavior.
Because the PACE project is focused on portable performance, it
relies on native C compilers, either vendor supplied or open source, to perform
the final steps of code generation for the target systems. Thus, the PACE tools will produce, as
output, a distinct version of the application’s code for each kind of processor
in the system. They will optimize
those output codes specifically for the processor, the surrounding system, and
the vendor compiler. In this way,
the PACE
system should produce the best application performance that can be achieved using less
ambitious compilers for the component processors.
PACE is an acronym for “platform-aware compilation
environment.” The PACE team
includes researchers from Rice University, ET International, Ohio State University, Stanford University, and Texas Instruments.